Farmers who have been Hailed Out may Reseed This Year

Many farmers in south central Alberta are hoping they still have time to seed a new crop and harvest it this fall.

 

Many farms, from Acme down to Taber had their newly seeded crops wiped out by that massive hailstorm that struck the region, nearly 2 weeks ago. Some farms were pounded for 20 minutes with baseball sized hail that was still lying in the fields the following day. Cereal crops and canola were shredded and for some producers, its simply too late to replant. The crops that survived the damage might be suitable for feed when its finally harvested later this year.

 

Yesterday, the province announced the storm met the criteria to force payment under the disaster relief program for non-insurable damage. Northeast Calgary was especially hard hit by the storm, where damage is pegged at close to a billion dollars.

 

In the Drumheller, Three Hills area, Jared Potter, Commercial & Farm Insurance Broker with Centre Street Insurance in Drumheller, notes that he has had a couple of farmers call him about hail they received in the Three Hills area.  "We've been working with our partner Palliser on the hail insurance. Some of the farmers we've insured in the Three Hills area, sounds like it was early enough in the (growing) process that there was no real damage or reseeding done.  That's the importance of calling your broker just making sure you are properly protected."  Potter says that from their information, we get around four or five hail storms a year in our area.