On November 30, 2021, the federal and Manitoba governments announced a Herd Management Drought Assistance program under the AgriRecovery framework. The goal of this program is to help producers offset costs related to replacing breeding animals culled due to feed shortages and work towards returning livestock inventories to pre-drought levels. This includes breeding females purchased or breeding females retained from producers' existing herds or flocks.
The announcement is part of the overall Canada-Manitoba AgriRecovery Drought Assistance that was announced earlier in August 2021 valued at up to $155 million with investments from both the federal and Manitoba governments.
Eligible animals under this newly announced program include breeding females of beef cattle, bison, sheep goats and elk, where producers must be supporting a minimum of 10 animals to qualify for assistance. On the Manitoba government website, beef cattle are listed as livestock eligible for a payment of $250 per head, based on the increase in the breeding female inventory between March 16, 2022 and January 31, 2023. Payments are then capped once inventories are restored to pre-drought levels.
Application is a two step process where application packages will be available starting January 10, 2022, and claim forms will be made available later in the year on December 1, 2022.
For more information on eligibility and the application process, click here to visit the Manitoba Government website: Herd Management Drought Assistance.
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