Productions covered

General principles

Compensation: Program intervention when the selling price is lower than the stabilized income.
Compensation = Stabilized income - Average selling price

The payment of compensation is limited to the maximum total of all products covered for each fiscal period. Should that amount be exceeded, a reduction in compensation will be applied to all the products.

Insurance year: January 1 to December 31.

Stabilized income: production cost including 70% of the wages of 0.549 operator-owner. Earnings on equity and the stabilization insurance contribution for the product concerned are not included in the stabilized income.

Production cost: that of a farm type specializing in the production of hogs using a farrow-to-finish production method, whose parameters and expenses are indexed annually.

Selling price: average of the prices having prevailed in Québec for specialized businesses having similar characteristics to the model.

For the products Piglets and Hogs, compensation is calculated for the production of hogs marketed by the farrow-to-finish type farm. Compensation is then broken down with 40% allotted for the product Piglets and 60% for the product Hogs.

Link between ASRA and AgriStability, AgriInvest and Agri-Québec:

• Compensation payments made in the framework of the Farm Income Stabilization Insurance Program (ASRA) take into account payments granted under the AgriStability, AgriInvest and Agri-Québec programs or under any government risk management program involving farm income;
• To continue to benefit from full coverage, ASRA participants must participate in AgriStability. ASRA compensation payments for those who do not participate in AgriStability are reduced by 40%.

Model farm

Farm with 1349 hogs, farrowing on average 3.16 times a year.

The annual production is 4,264 hogs sold.

The average weight of piglets entered for feeding is 25.1 kg (55 lb).

The average weight of hogs at slaughter is 97 kg (214 lb) on a carcass weight basis.

Eligibility

• Be domiciled in Québec.
• Be the owner of the animals that were fed in Québec.
• Cumulate an insurable minimum of :
  • 46,000 kg of hogs sold (on a carcass weight basis) or;
  • 38,000 kg (on a carcass weight basis) when the participant is also insured for the product Piglets and respects the required minimum of 23 sows (including replacement females) for the insurance year in question.
    
• The insurable minimum must be met even if the business enrols in the program or terminates its participation during the insurance year.
• Insure all insurable hogs.
• Participate in the Program for the product Hogs for a period of five years.
• No enrolment deadline. However, the date that marks the beginning of the enrolment period corresponds to the registration date to the program, determined by the date on which the application form is received.
  

Cross compliance measures

When the Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs (MDDEP) transmits information to La Financière agricole establishing that the participant did not submit a valid phosphorus report as stipulated under the Agricultural Operations Regulation (AOR), the participant loses the right to any compensation for the current insurance year for all the insured products. Moreover, the participant will be required to pay, as an administrative fee, an amount equal to the contribution that would have been due on all the insured products.

The provisions related to the phosphorus report concern all the raising or spreading sites owned, leased or on which the operation custom produces. It targets all the operation’s productions, whether or not they are covered by a program at La Financière agricole.

For more information on the requirements related to the phosphorus report, participants should consult an agrologist or the regional office of the MDDEP.

Conditions for participation

Hogs intended for slaughter must be marketed under the supervision and direction of the Fédération des producteurs de porcs du Québec, in accordance with the Règlement sur la production et la mise en marché des porcs.

Evaluation procedures for insurable volume

Insurable hog: hog sold as a slaughter hog.

To be insurable under the product Hogs, piglets entering into a feeding operation during the insurance year or from January 1 to December 31, 2012, must be born in Québec.

The insurable volume is based on the number of kilograms (net carcass weight) of hogs sold at the Encan électronique du porc, whose hot carcass weight is greater than or equal to 65 kg (143 lb) and that were slaughtered between January 1 and December 31 of the year.

Hogs for breeding are not insurable.

In the event that the number of hogs used to establish the insurable volumes of all participants for the insurance year in question exceeds the collective insurable limit of 7,600,000 hogs, the unit compensation and the year’s unit contribution will be established by applying a ratio resulting from the division of the collective insurable limit by the number of hogs used to establish the insurable volume of all participants for the year in question.

General

Financing of the Premium

One third of the premium comes from the participants and two thirds of the premium comes from La Financière agricole.

For participants whose insurable volume exceeds 1,152,119 kg of hogs sold (net carcass weight), 50% of the premium comes from participants and 50% from La Financière agricole for the volumes exceeding that threshold. However, the share of the premium associated to the accumulated deficit, as of March 31, 2010, will continue to be financed based on a 1/3 - 2/3 ratio.

Any new participant affiliated with an operation that, as of November 11, 2009, had an insurable volume exceeding 1,152,119 kg of hogs sold (net carcass weight), is subject to the terms described in the above paragraph, but on all the insured units for the product Hogs.

Participant Contribution

The share of the premium coming from participants, or the required contribution, is deducted from the first compensation advance for the year. If need be, any remaining contribution is deducted from a later payment or recovered, at the latest, prior to the final payment for the insurance year in question. For a new participant, however, half the contribution is due upon enrolment.

Reduction in Contribution

Any farm operator qualifying a participant for an establishment grant under the Financial Support Program for Aspiring Farmers at La Financière agricole du Québec, makes it possible for the participant to benefit from a 25% reduction in his or her contributions, up to $50,000 annually for all insured products. The reduction applies for two consecutive years.

To be entitled to the reduction, the participant must remain eligible for the establishment grant for the full period of the insurance year in question.

From the time the establishment grant is confirmed, the participant has two years in which to apply for the reduction in contribution.

Administrative Fee

Annual administrative fees of $55 per category or insured product are charged. These fees may be indexed annually.

Compensation

The final compensation is paid at the latest by the April 30 following the end of the insurance year.

It is possible for La Financière agricole to pay compensation advances throughout the year.

Application for review

Any request for a review of a final decision rendered regarding a participant’s insurance file must be made in writing, explaining the motives behind the request, and sent to the Service Centre in charge of the participant’s file or delivered in person to a representative of La Financière agricole within ninety (90) days from the date of the decision in question. However, program conditions and parameters or program premises, the results of collective appraisals for crop insurance losses and exclusion from programs for motives provided for in the programs may not be subject to a request for a review.

This summary, in effect for the 2012 insurance year, in no way takes precedence over the provisions of the Program, of the regulation in effect or of any policy of La Financière agricole.