Saskatchewan farmers received $159 million from crop hail insurance payments this year.

The Canadian Crop Hail Association reports a total of 13,500 losses.

Both those numbers were higher than 2011 when there were 11,800 losses and total payouts of nearly $121 million.

The big difference was the amount of hail insurance purchased. Saskatchewan farmers spent $212 million on premiums compared to $168 million last year.

"We sold more insurance this year than I think we ever have," said Rodney Schoettler, CEO of Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Insurance. "The crops were worth a lot more money, so they (farmers) insured to the value of the crops. We wrote probably about 25 per cent more business than we thought we would write."

Schoettler says more money was spent on crop inputs so farmers needed to protect their expenses in the event of a hail storm.

June was a busy month with three times the usual number of crop hail claims. August and September saw storms generating the largest losses per claim.

"The crops were ripe and there was a lot of wind that hurt the hail companies a little bit."

The largest concentration of crop hail claims was in the west-central part of the province, including the Unity, North Battleford, Kindersley, Rosetown and Biggar regions. Some crops were damaged on three separate occasions.