Manitoba’s beleaguered hog farmers will be offered early access to their expected AgriStability payout for 2008, under a Targeted Advance Payment (TAP) program announced Tuesday.
Letters are in the mail to eligible Manitoba hog producers with information about the amount of their advance and how to receive a payment, the federal and provincial governments said in a press release.
Producers will also find access to this funding a continuation of the “successful” 2007 TAP implemented last fall, provincial Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk said in the release.
TAPs for producers with fiscal periods between Jan. 1 and July 31, 2008 will be based on 60 per cent of their estimated 2008 AgriStability payment, the governments said. Payments for producers with a fiscal period between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31, 2008 will be based on 25 per cent of the total AgriStability payment.
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The percentage allocated to TAP will be reviewed once further information on price levels is available, to see if a higher percentage is needed, the governments said.
The governments say those percentages are intended to reduce the risk of an overpayment, which the federal ag income stabilization (CAIS) office would then have to recoup from the farmer.
“We are committed to ensuring support and financial assistance is available to Manitoba’s hog producers when they need it most to help stabilize farm incomes during this unpredictable time,” Wowchuk said. “The (TAPs) will help producers deal with their financial obligations in a timely manner.”
The federal government noted that this funding follows recent improvements to the federal Advance Payments Program, which were announced in February. The province last month also announced funding to boost wastewater treatment in Brandon and Neepawa, where Maple Leaf and Hytek’s Springhill Farms are planning pork slaughter capacity expansions, respectively.
The water treatment money, plus some funding for training at the two pork facilities, will come from the federal Community Development Trust.
Hog producers in Saskatchewan have recently aired their disappointment with the TAPs for the 2007 AgriStability program. Sask Pork in January said many of its member producers wound up getting little or none of the TAP funds that initial communications from the CAIS office had said they would receive.
Sask Pork at the time called for 2008 interim payment applications to be made “immediately” available to hog farmers. A 2008 TAP program for Saskatchewan hog farmers was rolled out in mid-March.
