Sixty-six percent over 11 years — that’s how much extra support Alberta cow-calf producers would have received had certain feed and pasture costs been fully covered under a major business risk management tool.
However, the Agricultural Financial Services Corp., which delivers the AgriStability program in the province, hopes to change that by asking cow-calf producers for ideas.
To participate in the pilot program, they will need accurate 2023 income, expense and year-end inventory reporting.
“It’s looking at how we can ensure that no matter how you grow your feed or obtain your pasture, how those could be captured as input costs within AgriStability,” said Stuart Chutter, senior policy adviser with AFSC.
“If we look at the last 11 years of AgriStability data in Alberta, if these changes had been implemented, support to the cow-calf sector over that long period would have been 66 percent higher.
“Especially in those disaster drought years, it really would have … given a more proactive, dependable tool to cow-calf producers as opposed to AgriRecovery, which is an after-the-fact ad hoc disaster support program.”
AgriStability is described by AFSC as a whole-farm risk management tool to protect farmers against declines that threaten a farm’s viability. It has been criticized by cow-calf producers for its exclusion of winter feed and pasture, among other costs.
Chutter provided examples of what is eligible under AgriStability and where discrepancies sneak in.
“Commodity purchases like hay or grains are eligible, but rent costs and equipment costs to grow your own feed are not eligible,” he said.
“So indirectly, costs to grow your own feed to feed your livestock are not eligible. That is where the discrepancy lies. If you buy all feed, it is eligible but if you grow or graze your own feed, a lot of that feed cost as a production cost is not eligible.”
In early 2023, AFSC completed a program review focused on options that would improve program responsiveness for the cow-calf sector.
The review prompted recommendations to modify feed and pasture eligibility as well as policy pertaining to feed inventory price adjustments — changes cow-calf producers have asked for.
For the pilot program, Chutter is looking for a diverse group of cow-calf producers across Alberta covering a broad range of feeding styles.
“Corn grazers, bale grazers, extensive stockpiled grazers, traditional total mixed ration, silage feeding systems, people who rent or own pasture, who custom graze and who tend to community pasture,” he said.
Producers do not need to be enrolled in AgriStability to participate. This allows AFSC to capture the input of cow-calf producers who have left the program.
“I specifically want participation from producers who have left the program or who have not seen adequate support from the program or do not feel they’re receiving adequate support from the program,” said Chutter.
“I want producers who have left the program so we can identify the gaps for when people leave the program and find those solutions.”
Otherwise, the main key to participation is having a strong set of data.
“I’ll be needing their 2023 income and expenses along with their inventory values,” said Chutter. “Once that’s provided to us, we will run an analysis under all the different options and methodologies for changes.
“Then we’ll sit down individually with those producers and go through the various options to capture their feed and pasture costs, look at the methodologies that work under different production systems, and look for solutions of how to potentially incorporate that within the program.”
Chutter said the pilot, which runs this spring and early summer, is an opportunity to analyze data for a highly variable year.
“2023 gives us a disaster drought year but with lots of regional variability, so we can analyze producers who have experienced severe feed shortages and producers who didn’t,” he said.
“And we can look individually under different ways of growing and obtaining feed and growing and obtaining pasture.”
There’s need for AFSC to adjust its AgriStability policies to encourage pasture grazing, said Chutter.
“One of the best program and policy tools available for the environment is policy that supports our cow-calf sector and our prairie grasslands.”
Pasture land is valuable from both an environmental and economic perspective.
Edward Bork, a University of Alberta researcher, has confirmed that grazed land in Alberta contains 8.5 percent more soil carbon than non-grazed lands. He’s also found there’s 17.1 million tonnes of carbon in Alberta soil due to grazing. This represents more than $3 billion worth of carbon.
Any cow-calf producer interested in participating in the pilot project should contact Chutter as soon as possible. He can be reached at AFSC by calling 1-877-899-2372 or emailing info@afsc.ca.
“Right now (Feb. 16) we’re probably about two-thirds full,” he said.
“It’s something that is happening now and ongoing. And I’m really, really excited about it because the producers who are engaging in this so far are keenly interested and solution based, really giving an indication that this is a need and a desire of producers and industry.”
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