Reading Time: 2 minutes The numbers are still coming in for the cost of the damage caused by a huge hail storm that hit various areas of Alberta Aug. 20.

Massive storm in southeastern Alberta causes significant damage to crops and reported deaths of livestock
Several farmers report harrowing experience of being caught in massive hail storm in area around Brooks

Low yield allowance adjusted to support farmers in Alberta
Provincial, federal governments help Alberta farmers turn low-yield crops into feed
Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta farmers can move more quickly to salvage poor crops for feed, after the federal and provincial governments announced increases to AFSC's low yield allowances for the 2025 crop year.

New crop insurance policy enables easier startup for faba beans
AFSC ‘normals’ updated to reflect growing production in Alberta
Reading Time: 4 minutes Agriculture Financial Services Corporation updated its normals for faba beans, which may open the door for more Canadian producers to feel comfortable growing the pulse crop in the future.

Alberta cereals harvest surprisingly resilient
Dryland farmers in the south took a hit, but other regions pulled up the provincial average
Reading Time: 4 minutes Alberta’s cereal crop production wasn’t terrible this year, but only if judging by provincial averages. Alberta Financial Services Corporation publishes the provincial crop report along with field staff at Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation. As harvest unfolds, they’ve seen total yield estimates rise week by week. In its most recent edition, barley yield expectations increased by […] Read more

How to speed your crop insurance claim
AFSC says to submit production reports as soon as possible
Reading Time: 2 minutes With many crop insurance claims expected this year, AFSC has issued a release with tips to speed up the review and calculation of losses. Some of the main topics include: Clients are encouraged to submit their Harvest Production Report as soon as possible after harvest. Clients may want to take an acceptable grain sample to […] Read more

Alberta fairs, auctions offer space for evacuated livestock
Central areas catch break with moisture, cooler weather; CN service resumes
Alberta’s ag societies and livestock auction marts are offering up pen space for producers forced to evacuate animals away from dozens of wildfires in the province’s northern and west-central regions. As of early Thursday evening, the province was tracking 76 active wildfires, of which 22 were listed as “out of control” and 17 as “being […] Read more

Crop insurance premiums likely up — but not 60 per cent
Reading Time: 4 minutes Crop insurance premiums are not rising by more than half for Alberta farmers, but they’ll likely have to dig deeper in their pockets. The year-over-year average increase is 22 per cent, not the 60 per cent suggested in a recent Global news report, says the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation. That figure exists in the province’s […] Read more

Alberta harvest in home stretch as province dries up
MarketsFarm — As harvest progress in Alberta remained well ahead of the five-year average, soil moisture levels in the province continued to dwindle. With a gain of 12 points on the week, Alberta Financial Services Corp. (AFSC) estimated 87.6 per cent of the major crops were harvested. While that’s slightly below this time last year, […] Read more

Growers urged to leave hail-damaged samples
Alberta again hit hardest in late-June storms
Reading Time: < 1 minute Members of the Canadian Crop Hail Association are asking hail-affected growers to leave adequate samples for adjusters. The CCHA said storms damaged crops with hail as large as baseballs across Western Canada in late July and member companies are investigating more than 1,500 claims. In a release, CCHA president Scott McQueen of Palliser Insurance said […] Read more

AFSC and Olds College form partnership
Drone assessment of hail damage is among the research projects
Reading Time: < 1 minute Olds College and Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) have created a formal partnership in which AFSC will support applied research on the Olds College Smart Farm. In 2021 the Olds College research team worked on a proof of concept with AFSC to see if drone imagery in hail-damaged fields could assist assessment, with promising initial […] Read more