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 90% of the wages of 1.215 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 specialized farm type whose parameters and expenses are indexed annually.

Selling price: weighted average of the prices having prevailed in Québec throughout the insurance year.

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

• Compensation payments made in the framework of the Farm Income Stabilization Insurance (ASRA) Program 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 that feeds 824.9 milk-fed calves and sold at an average hot carcass weight of 121.79 kg without the hide.

Cultivate an area of 31.7 hectares.

The annual production volume marketed is 100,465 kg (hot carcass weight without the hide).

The operation produces 2.21 animals per year.

Eligibility

• Be domiciled in Québec.
• Be the owner of the animals that were fed in Québec.
• Cumulate a minimum of 70 insurable milk-fed calves every insurance year.
• Insure all insurable milk-fed calves.
• Participate in the program for the product Milk-Fed Calves 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

The participant must affix ear tags and declare the calves thus identified within a period not exceeding 21 days from the date of entry of the calves into the livestock operation. Failure to comply with the expiry date will entail a reduction in calculating the compensation, at a rate of 2% of the number of insurable calves concerned per day late up to 40%. The reduction may not be greater than 20% of the annual eligible volume or $5,000. However, the participant’s default leads to the payment, as administrative fees, of an amount equal to the share of the contribution that would have been due on the entire annual insurable volume.

Milk-fed calves intended for slaughter must be marketed under the supervision and direction of the Fédération des producteurs de bovins du Québec, in accordance with the Règlement sur la production et la mise en marché des veaux de lait.

Evaluation procedures for insurable volume

Insurable milk-fed calves: dairy-type calves fed principally on milk replacer, raised inside a livestock building and intended to be slaughtered as beef-type calves at a hot carcass weight without the hide of at least 64 kg (141 lb) and at the most  161 kg (355 lb), and that will start being raised in Québec 72 hours, at the most, after the departure from the birth place.

The insurable volume is based on the number of milk-fed calves identified with a tag and slaughtered in a slaughterhouse holding a slaughter permit.

Animals slaughtered for contract in a transitory or local slaughterhouse and those marketed on a live basis directly to consumers are not insurable.

In the event La Financière agricole cannot use or does not receive the slaughter data provided for in the above paragraph, the participant must send the information or proof required to normalize his file later than October 31, following the end of the insurance year concerned.

Milk-fed calves products not meeting the standards established by the Règlement sur la production et sur la mise en marché des veaux de lait, are not insurable.

The period between the date of entry into the livestock operation and the slaughter date must be between 85 and 160 days. The period includes the days spent in all production sites in Québec. Moreover, the participant must send the entry declaration for the calves to La Financière agricole within a period not exceeding 21 days.

The participant must inform La Financière agricole if a calf wearing an ear tag ceases to be fed principally with replacer milk.

In the event that the total insurable volumes of all participants for the insurance year in question exceeds the collective insurable limit of 159,000 milk-fed calves, 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 total number of insurable units.

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 2,330 milk-fed calves, 50% of the premium comes from participants and 50% from La Financière agricole for the volumes exceeding those thresholds. 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 2,330 milk-fed calves is subject to the terms described in the above paragraph, but on all the insured units for the product Milk-Fed Calves.

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.

Entitlement to compensation is conditional on the payment by the participant of any contribution due according to the Plan conjoint des producteurs de bovins du Québec. La Financière agricole may deduct, from compensation payments it makes, the contributions due by participants to their joint plan.

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.