The indemnity checks continue to flow out to farmers around the nation affected by this year's devastating drought.

As of this week, more than $8.7 billion has been paid out by the crop insurance industry, according to a report from National Crop Insurance Services. The vast majority of those checks have gone out to cover losses in corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and sorghum, a report shows. That's despite the fact crop insurance covered 128 different crops in 2012. Other key numbers in what's likely to be a record year for crop insurance payouts include:

• 4.1 billion: Farmers will invest more than $4.1 billion to purchase more than 1.2 million crop insurance policies.

• 281 million: Those policies protect more than 281 million acres of eligible crops.

• 15,000: That's the number of crop insurance agents who are working with 5,000 loss adjusters around the clock to help farmers get their claims processed.