August 12, 2009

Hailstorms that ripped across central Iowa Sunday (August 9) have caused farmers at least tens of millions of dollars in crop damage and could cut into the state's corn and soy yield, officials said Tuesday.

 

The storms devastated corn and soy in a two- to four-mile area stretching across much of the state along US Highway 20, said Jim Patton, Iowa State University regional extension education director.

 

Patton, based in Fort Dodge, said he is personally aware of damage as far as 100 miles east, to the Mississippi River, as well as almost 100 miles west.

 

Crop losses in Hardin County alone were estimated at US$25 million to US$30 million, the Des Moines Register reported Tuesday. Patton said it's too early to provide a specific figure, but that statewide the crop damage was extensive.

 

"We'll be talking hundreds of millions of dollars," he said. "It's tough for me to fathom how big those numbers are going to be."

 

But Dave Miller, director of research at the Iowa Farm Bureau, made a "back of the envelope estimate" of roughly US$50 million statewide, including roughly US$25 million in Hardin County.

 

"The core of where the hail damage really occurred was probably in a 125-mile strip," Miller said. "That doesn't mean you didn't have damage outside of that."

 

For farmers hit by the baseball-sized hail and heavy winds, the storms ruined what had been shaping up as a perfect crop, with possible record yields. In addition to the crops that have been destroyed, those on the fringes could continue to face problems, such as susceptibility to mould, depending on the weather, Patton said.

 

"We're looking at significant individual operators having significant losses," he said. "Because it's two to four miles wide, many of those operators had the majority of their operation in that space."

 

In areas in the teeth of the storms, damage to crops was at least 70 percent to 80 percent, if not total destruction, Patton said.

 

The timing of the storm is particularly devastating, he said, coming near the end of the growing season. A similar storm in late May 1998 at least left farmers time to replant, he said.

 

Patton said overall it could cut the state yield for the crops by 10 percent from "what it could have been" had the weather remained favourable.

 

But Miller said the storms would "probably not" make a major dent in the state's total output.

 

"Every year there's a percent of the crop that has damage," he said.