Certain Manitoba vegetable growers will now have access to a cash advance program for their crops. The Manitoba Corn Growers Association (MCGA) is now offering advance payment for squash, beets, pumpkins, carrots, broccoli, sweet corn, and sod.

"Since the government changed the rules for 2015 where we could add all the crops, we've have a few different crops (producers) come to us and say, 'Well, why can't we get (cash advance)?'" says MCGA general manager Theresa Bergsma. "Since no one was offering it, then we started to talk a little more, and talked to Ottawa, and yeah, it just developed into a need for farmers that wasn't being covered, and we're just trying to fill that void."

In order to be elligible for the program, Bergsma says producers must have either the AgriStability program as a backstop in spring or crop insurance, similar to the MCGA's advance payment program for grains and oilseeds. However, she explains there are some differences between the crop types.

"Some of these (vegetable crops) are what they consider non-storable because they don't have a long shelf life and they're sold rather quickly, so in the case of most of these, they are repaid on a re-payment plan and must be repaid by the end of the year because general the crop is already gone," Bergsma says.

She says vegetable crops also require a few extra forms, which the MCGA hopes to have on its website soon. Bergsma recommends interested producers call the MCGA office for more details on the program.