The Southern part of our county experienced a large hail storm two days ago. The storm caused some significant damage to crops. I went for a drive this afternoon so I figured I would drive to the affected area and snap a few pictures. Harvest is going to be difficult due to the damage not to mention the reduction in yield in an already tough year. Luckily for us the hail occurred several miles from any of our fields.
As crops get older the threat of hail becomes worse. This storm came late which means there was no chance for a young plant to recover or for fields to be replanted. Hail insurance can be purchased as a separate product from crop insurance.
Everything above the ears is knocked over. There are whole ears laying on the ground that won’t get harvested.
This is one of our fields. This is what the above field should look like. All the downed stalks from the hail damage will make harvest slow and difficult.
Soybeans are defoliated and some pods have been knocked off. Some plants have fallen over, and they will be a tangled mess at harvest.
Those beans would’ve looked like this two days ago.
I have a hunch these guys have seen worse.
Here’s a video showing and explaining hail damage in a corn field.
Here in the Midwest we farmers really appreciate late summer rains, but the thought of strong winds or hail might be in the back of our minds.
The weather always gives surprises! That blow to the harvest, I hope everything has been well after that unexpected stroke of hail. In Colombia we refer to http://www.agronet.gov.co for climate information but in a summer season nobody expected a hailstorm of these proportions.
I know one of the farms that lost a few hundred acres to that hail storm had what was left cut and used for silage for a large dairy nearby. Thanks for stopping by, Marti. Do you work in Columbian agriculture?