SASKATOON – The gifts and curses of the weather gods cannot be challenged, merely accepted.
But prairie hail and crop insurance programs are breathing easy now the crops are in and it appears the vagaries of the weather were about average.
“Everything is so weather-dependent here,” said Gloria Visser of Saskatchewan’s crop insurance corporation about why it is hard to say whether this year was average.
In Saskatchewan, hail claims were up substantially from last year, but general crop insurance claims are almost the same.
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In Manitoba, hail claims are about what the provincial agency expected, but general crop insurance claims are down from last year and less than one-third of what is expected for a bad year.
Alberta’s hail insurance claims are down from last year and its general crop insurance claims are so far down that the program president calls 1995 “an excellent year.”
Bob Splane said there was no miracle behind Alberta’s low crop insurance claims, “it was just a good year. People had good yields.”
And while there were more summer storms this year, they were smaller and caused less damage each, so the result is about the same as 1994.
Last year $20.9 million, or 93.9 percent of premiums, were paid out for hail damage, dropping to $18 million, or 82.8 percent of premiums, this year.
In general, crop insurance payouts were only 13 percent of premiums, below last year’s 30 percent, and well below the 200 percent payout that can occur in a crop disaster, Splane said.
“You need these (very good years) every once in a while to get the fund back in balance,” he said.
Saskatchewan looked to be heading for a virtually damage-free year, until August.
There were only 3,600 claims for the entire year until a string of violent storms rampaged across the grain belt, pummeling crops and causing an eruption of 14,800 new claims.
That has pushed the total number this year above last year’s 15,690 to more than 19,300.
This year will be remembered by many producers as “the year of the bug” because of the onslaught of bertha armyworms, diamondback moths and wheat midge, but Visser said enough farmers knew about the pest peril to take action and control losses.
Total claims
That leaves total claims this year at almost 23,000, slightly above 1994’s 22,236. In a crop disaster year, such as 1992, claims can top 36,000, she said.
Manitoba crop insurance is experiencing one of its lowest-claim periods on record. This year is expected to reap about 6,000 claims, down from 9,200 last year and only one-third of 1993’s 19,000.
The highest number of Manitoba claims in recent years was 1988’s 21,000, followed closely by the low 3,700 of 1990.
“So much depends on the weather,” said Brian Halstead of Manitoba crop insurance.
The wild weather that tore across Saskatchewan did not make numbers jump in Manitoba, where the 2,000 claims this year are an almost exact duplicate of last year.
