Manitoba farmers have filed 150 hail claims so far this season with the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC).
Just over 100 of those came from a June 20 storm that hit the Lowe Farm, Rosenort and Steinbach areas.
That’s slightly more than the 127 hail claims MASC received as of June 28, 2019, but far fewer than the 457 it had as of June 27, 2018, MASC’s sales manager David Koroscil said in an interview June 25.
As of that date MASC’s Altona and St. Pierre offices had received 61 and 21 hail claims, respectively, he said. The rest were a smattering from various places around Manitoba.
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Early-summer storms across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba produced hail that resulted in mostly light to medium crop damage with heavy damage reported in some areas, the Canadian Crop Hail Association (CCHA) said in a news release June 24.
In addition to the recent storms, hail claims have come in from Elkhorn and Miniota, MASC’s claim service’s agronomist Brendan Blight said in the release.
Hail has damaged fall rye, wheat, canola, soybeans and sunflowers, he said.
“Fall rye in Altona had some severe damage,” Blight said. “All other crops had minor damage.”
High winds are a factor in adjusting the claims, he added.
While hailstorms are devastating to affected farmers, flooding and drought are by far the leading cause of crop loss most years provincially.
CCHA-member companies are investigating about 200 hail claims from the three Prairie provinces following storms May 26, June 4, June 9 and June 13 to 17.
A storm damaged peas in Cadillac community of Saskatchewan, Darryl Tiefenbach of Additional Municipal Hail, said in the release.
“The damage was generally minimal since it is an early storm and the crop is in its early stage of growth,” he said.
Tyson Ryhorchuk of Rain and Hail Insurance Service reported damage to crops in the Alberta communities of Taber, Coaldale, Vauxhall and damage in Albertville in Saskatchewan.
“The wind was a large factor within the Albertville storm as well,” he said.
Murray Bantle of Cooperative Hail Insurance Company reported light to medium damage to beans, wheat and canola across Manitoba. He also reported light to heavy damage to wheat, canola and peas in Saskatchewan.
Scott McQueen of Palliser Insurance Company reported minor damage to peas and canola in Alberta.
Hail insurance customers are being asked to review and understand the new COVID-19 protocols designed to keep adjusters and policyholders as safe as possible, the CCHA release said.
