agristability?

[GOODRUM]

Anyone care to guess how this program will react to these unseeded acres,last time I think it was still cais and still havent figured that one out.In 05 and 06 there was a additional $15 from the feds .I know there is going to be unseeded acres on my farm ,question is how many.

[bucket]

I just hope that when they come out with a package, that it is as good as the auto companies got or the security companies for the G8/20.

The auto companies could make cars in the rain and sell them too. They got there by their own mismanagement.

Farmers could not have prevented, expected, or planned for the mess that has come. Weather is completely out of farmers control.

If the conservatives decide to abandon farmers, I could see a shift coming in the next election.

This is a disaster. No 2 ways about it.

And the fact Ritz has said nothing about it, is obvious he intends to do nothing about it.

I don't think giving money to a profitable flax straw plant is going to help my bottom line nor is another gm flax the feds are funding. The money is being misplaced.

Like a billion dollar security scheme.


Bet they could not find a billion for 100,000 businesses called farms in western canada but to have world leaders as guests in Ontario they have no shortage of money.

[dalek]

Just remember, zero five years in a row is perfect stability.

[dalek]

As Daelic says, you need to have had good production years in the last 3 of 5. Most will have achieved this and should have a good margin.

On a per acre basis, you need to have a reference margin of at least $140 to as high as $200 (straight grain farm). This is an adjusted number for the structure change etc.

As far as the handling of unseeded acres, any compensation from crop insurance or adhoc program will be treated as income for the claim year and will affect the payment received through agristability.

One issue I see (and I have a neighbor in this pickle) is if you have not carried crop insurance on all your acres and at 70% or better you potentially have a proration of your $50 unseeded acre benefit plus your agristability payment will be reduced if you would have received a payment from crop insurance at 70% coverage.

For those that have carried crop/hail insurance all the time and had minimal claims, you may be entitled to an additional payment under Agristability when they recalculate your reference margin without the crop/hail premiums and proceeds and the result is a higher reference margin because of this. Basically the program doesn't penalize you for self insuring if it has not increased your overall net revenue because of it.

The second issue I fear (and most significant) is that too many producers information has not been reported correctly or processed correctly by the administration and therefore the farm's reference margin may not be correct and potentially reduce benefits when it may be needed the most.

As far as I know from my farmer peer group, friends and neighbors, from the professionals that prepare the forms, there is only one accounting firm (which I use) that calculates reference margins going forward and any eligible payments in the year of claim. The balance simply ask for the details at time of filing the tax return and just "send them in" to see what happens. There is too much chance of error.

With our tax return, we calculate the balance owing, tax instalments required, RRSP deduction room etc. Why in the world do we allow the processing of Agristability to be handled this way?

[freewheat]

Sask99, What do you mean when you say you need a margin going forward of 140 and acre?

[freewheat]

Good question freewheat.

$140 is the calculation I worked through with my accountant that is basically where the Agristability covers all operating losses (break even)and includes all overhead costs and management compensation.

This number will vary from farm to farm depending on your size, family draw and overhead costs may be higher but his numbers he has worked through with his clients, this was the scale tipper.

I really like working with the firm he is a partner of and because he still actively farms in addition, we can relate very well.

For your interest, he has been keeping a unanimous spreadsheet of the agristability margins per acre of the clients of his particular office. The spreadsheet shows ranges of acres and on a per acre basis the reference margins. The highest margin they have seen going into 2010 is nearly $240 (up from $200 in 2009. It was good to know we were not at the bottom with $180, but gave us a target to compare to.