May. 08/20 News Print Page

AFSC supports yesterday’s AgriRecovery announcement by the Government of Alberta, introducing new supports to help farmers and ranchers in response to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures target beef, hog and potato producers.

“We are ready and prepared to work with the ministry, as well as federal and provincial governments to ensure money gets to producers as quickly as possible,” said Jerry Bouma, AFSC’s Interim CEO. “We understand the key role we play in delivering these programs for our clients, who have endured incredible circumstances this past year.”

Under AgriRecovery,  a new fed cattle set-aside program  will compensate cattle producers for the extraordinary cost of keeping slaughter-ready cattle on maintenance feed ration until the backed-up inventory is cleared. This will allow beef producers to hold on to slaughter-ready cattle on maintenance feed ration for several weeks, allowing the supply of animals to more evenly match demand and reduced processing capacity. Terms and conditions for this program are currently under development and will be announced shortly.

Additionally, changes to the AgriStability Interim Payment Program will help hog and potato producers, who are also experiencing disruptions due to COVID-19. Effectively immediately, the Government of Alberta is increasing the interim payment under AgriStability from 50 per cent to 75 per cent for hog and potato producers.

AgriRecovery is a federal-provincial-territorial program intended to help agricultural producers recover from natural disasters.