Last year at this time crop news focused on excess moisture and flooding, particularly in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This year, conditions were much drier throughout the seeding season. This allowed for timely planting but as heat and dry conditions continued throughout May and June, crop stress has been severe in many areas of the Prairies.
Early season storms caused varying amounts of damages on those crops that were unevenly staged due to early seeding, dry conditions and large areas that had to be re-seeded. Some crop adjustments may need to be deferred to a later date in order to accurately assess damage, dependent on the stage of growth at the time of the hail event.
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New applications will be accepted throughout the month of July. A policy comes into effect at noon of the day following purchase, so producers are urged to make timely decisions in order to protect their investments. Damage potential increases significantly as crops advance in development.
Alberta
Crop conditions in Alberta are being reported as far below average as dry weather continues to prevail throughout most of the province. Wildfire status in the north remains at high to extreme. Alberta Agriculture noted continuing deterioration in both crop condition and moisture ratings during the last week of June.
The first hail storm of 2015 was reported on May 26 in the Barrhead area. Since that time, a number of smaller, isolated storms have been reported across central and southern Alberta and damage has been minimal, for the most part, because of later than normal crop development.
A June 12th storm resulted in widespread damage in a pattern travelling west of Stavely and moving east-south-east through to Medicine Hat. Golf-ball-sized hail stones were reported in some areas in a storm that brought an average of one inch of badly needed rainfall. On average, damage appeared to be light as crops were not as advanced as usual for that date.
Major storm dates and locations for this period included:
May 26: June 11: June 12: June 16: June 18: June 19: June 23:
Barrhead
Barrhead, Legal
Stavely, Medicine Hat, Vulcan, Hays, Bow Island, Champion, Enchant Claresholm
Nobleford, Crossfield, Rosemary, Taber
Carbon, Innisfail, Linden
Granum, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Fort Macleod, Drumheller, Stirling, Bentley
Saskatchewan
Conditions have been very dry across much of the province this spring, resulting in severe crops stress in many areas and extreme wildfire conditions in the north.
Total claims to date are within the five-year average. The highest number of claims resulted from a June 12th storm. It’s likely that the total number of claims from that event could have been much higher but many producers had not yet insured by that date.
Major storm dates and locations for this period included:
June 12:
June 17: June 18: June 19: June 20: June 21: June 23: June 24: June 25: June 26: June 28: June 30: July 1: July 3: July 4:
Heward, Admiral, Limerick, Assiniboia, Antler, Cadillac, Lafleche, Arcola, Redvers, Stoughton, Pontiex, Parry, Glasnevin, Woodrow, Ceylon, Crane Valley, Vanguard, Carlyle, Cardross, Gravelbourg
Antler, Redvers, Gull Lake
Eastend
Radville, Carlyle, Mankota, Bracken, Climax, Eastend, Frontier, McCord, Dilke
Insinger, Naicam, Mankota, Kennedy Yorkton, Vanguard
Shaunavon, Admiral
Nipawin
Alameda, Lampman
Chamberlain, Craik, Creelman, Fillmore
Asquith, Delisle
Outlook
Admiral, Scotsguard, Consul, Climax, Shaunavon, Mankota Kindersley
Arcola
Manitoba
Drier conditions in Manitoba allowed seeding to be completed in a timely manner. Some areas received killing frost in May and many acres were re-seeded. There have been some timely rains and also some reports of extreme weather across the province. Manitoba Agriculture is reporting overall good growing conditions.
Major storm dates and locations for this reporting period include:
June 7: June 23: June 25: June 27: July 3: July 4:
Pilot Mound
Holland, Mariapolis
La Riviere, Pilot Mound,
Touraud, Winkler, Thorhill, Morden, Winkler, Pilot Mound, Swan Lake, Miami Elkhorn
Brookdale, MacDonald, Deloraine, Waskada
The Canadian Crop Hail Association represents the companies that sell crop hail insurance to producers in Western Canada. The Hail Report will be released every second Thursday during the hail season to provide information on storms, claims and related issues. The report is compiled by McArton & Associates Communications at Dilke, Saskatchewan. If you would like an e-mail added to or deleted from the distribution list, contact shannon.mcarton@sasktel.net.
