(Bloomberg) — Saskatchewan, Canada's biggest producer of wheatand canola, expects insurance payouts on crops to increase afterfloods wiped out acreage.

“It's a very large area that's impacted, so we expect to get anumber of claims,” said Shawn Jaques, the chief executive officerof Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp., a government-owned companybased in Melville, Saskatchewan. “There will be a large number ofproducers that had their crops seeded, and it'll be floodedout.”

It's too early to estimate the extent of the damage as producersare just starting to call in with flooding reports, Jaques saidtoday on a call with reporters. Parts of Saskatchewan and Manitobaare experiencing severe flooding after as much as 200 millimeters(8 inches) of rain fell last weekend. Fifty-four municipalities inSaskatchewan have declared a state of emergency, Colin King, theprovince's deputy commissioner of emergency management and firesafety, said on the call.

Wheat sowing in Saskatchewan may decline as much as 15% afterexcessively wet weather, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin- based MartellCrop Projections said in report today. Four million acres in theCanadian prairies may be too wet to plant, according to LeftFieldCommodity Research.

Manitoba Fields

The extent of damage in Manitoba is still being assessed andwill depend on whether crops were completely washed out or fieldscan recover as water recedes, said David Koroscil, the manager ofinsurance projects for Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp., agovernment-owned company that provides risk-management andfinancial services to farmers. Growers in the province may file thelargest number of claims for acres too wet to plant since 2011, hesaid.

Symptoms of excess moisture stress, including yellowing andslowed crop development, are evident in Manitoba fields, and plantshave been wiped out in some areas, the province said in a report onJune 30. Further damage will probably occur because of flooding andsaturated soils, according to the report.

About half of the 600 acres Glen Franklin rents out to wheat andcanola producers in southwestern Manitoba will not produce any cropthis year because the seeded area is underwater and the rest wastoo wet to sow, he said.

“There's a lot of water around, a lot of crop lost,” Franklin,70, said today in a telephone interview from Whitewater Lake,Manitoba.

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