Manitoba farmers filed over 3,500 insurance claims for hail damage during the 2008 growing season, which according to the Canadian Crop Hail Association is above the province’s five-year average.

Manitobans can expect about $16 million in paid-out claims for the $46 million they paid in premiums, making their average payout per claim “much lower” than those in Saskatchewan or Alberta, the Prairie hail insurers’ group said Oct. 24.

Albertans paid in $66.5 million and can expect to receive $98.6 million in payouts for a record year of over 4,800 hail claims, the group said. Saskatchewan will also set a new record for hail insurance payouts and total hail-damaged acres, receiving about $228 million to settle nearly 21,000 claims. Farmers in Saskatchewan paid in about $176.5 million in premiums.

Payouts in those provinces are expected to put “upward pressure” on their farmers’ hail premium rates in 2009, the group said.