The CEO of Municipal Hail says his company has received fewer than 100 crop hail damage claims this year.
Rodney Schoettler says early season hail storms cause less crop damage, even though storms earlier this month in southeast Saskatchewan were severe.
"This storm would have come probably two or three weeks later, we'd probably be a thousand losses, whereas now we're just around a hundred," he said. "So the crops are just coming out of the ground in many locations, and the biggest storm dates were June 6th and 10th in the southeast part of the province, and I guess June 2nd, so they're pretty immature." he said.
Shoettler adds later seeding may result in less crop hail damage from the early June storms.
"I'd say this is a bit early and the other thing you've got to keep in mind, seeding was a bit later. So, when you put all of that in, these early season losses are a bit odd because the crops are more immature than maybe they would have been in three or four years ago when we seeded earlier."
He notes some crop hail claims are in the north and central regions of the province, in Central Butte, Dinsmore, Elrose, Kindersley, and North Battleford.
Schoettler tells producers with early crop hail claims to be patient and there is a reason for it.
"Any losses that we get at this stage, and I'm going to say anything probably before June 25, we're going to automatically delay the adjustment for about two weeks. So don't be alarmed if you don't see us for two weeks, so say 14 to 20 days is when we'll start to adjust these claims and it's all about recovery to see what happens to the plant after the event."
He also says farmers will get a notification saying Municipal Hail received their claim and another saying the claim has been assigned.
(With files from Neil Billinger, CJWW)
