GUELPH — Ontario farmers took out 5.3 million acres in production insurance in 2021, the same as last year, according to Agricorp, provider of the provincial crop insurance program.
Insured corn acres hit 1.65 million in 2021 out of a total of 2.146 million seeded corn acres. Last year, farmers insured 1.6 million acres.
Farmers insured 2.09 million acres of a total 2.936 million seeded soybean acres. Last year farmers insured 2 million soybean acres.
Including other insured crops— from cereals to forages to a slew of vegetables — this year’s total stands at 5.3 million acres enrolled in the program. That figure is holding steady from 2020, which saw a 300,000-acre jump over program uptake in 2019.
Eastern Ontario
Prescott-Russell and Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry have the most insurance coverage in Eastern Ontario, with both counties breaking 50,000 insured acres for both corn and soybeans. Ottawa (Carleton County) farmers insured more than 50,000 soybean acres this year and insured between 25,000 and 50,000 corn acres.
Lennox and Addington, Frontenac and Lanark have the smallest number of enrolled corn acres in the province. Each counts between 1,000 and 10,000 insured acre. Farmers in those counties insured 10,000 to 25,000 acres of soybeans.
Western Ontario
Agricrop counts a broad swath of southwestern Ontario counties with maximal acres of insurance coverage.
Chatham-Kent, Elgin, Oxford, Middlesex, Lambton, Perth, Huron, Bruce and Simcoe all clock in with more than 50,000 insured corn acres apiece.
It’s the same story for those counties on insured soybean acres, along with four others recorded at the maximum (50,000-acres-plus) level in that crop as well: Essex, Wellington, Haldimand and Niagara.
