News

County crops damaged by hail storm

By Scott Wagar

07/30/2013

With the hail storm that happened in Bottineau County two weeks ago a number of agricultural producers have seen crop damage in their fields.

On Friday, July 19, a storm came across the eastern part of the county late in the afternoon bringing rain, heavy winds and large size hail. The dangerous storm materialized just west of Paul Solberg’s farm on Highway 14, went across Bottineau and into the eastern end of the county.

Solberg, who planted 3,500 acres this spring, saw 2,800 of his acres damaged in the storm which were made up of barley, wheat and sunflowers.

“I had some hail damage to some extent. Some was not very much to all of it, but I also lost about four quarters that were completely mowed off. Basically, there is nothing left standing,” Solberg said. “An adjuster hasn’t been out yet, but it is my estimate that some is still salvageable and some is a complete lost.”

When the hail hit Solberg’s barley, he stated that the hail barely left any of the crop standing, with the majority of the crop’s heads knocked-off.
Solberg stated that it hailed for 35 minutes and was the size of large marbles.

“It was basically like getting a good snow, it was solid and nothing but white coming down,” Solberg said. “It just piled up and the highway was solid ice, like a rain in November that freezes on the road.”

Ron Heilman, and his son Troy, both farm south of Bottineau and were also hit by the hail storm. Ron saw hail and wind damage to 850 acres of crop land, while Troy saw close to 400 acres of damage on his land.

“I had quite bit of damage out here,” Ron Heilman said. “It took out quite a big swatch.”

The storm lasted about five minutes and had hail that was pea and marble which damaged barley, wheat and canola.

“I think the wind pushing the hail brought most of the damage, the ground was white in the yard here,” Ron Heilman said. “You can look in the fields, one part of the field is almost 100 percent damaged and a different part of the field is 50 percent. It is just all over the board. It came in pockets.”

Ron Heilman added that a good number of crop heads are turning white and that there are a large number of stalks and kernels on the ground, which isn’t sitting well financially for him.

“It is definitely going to be a financial hit,” Ron Heilman said. “There is definitely going to be a big loss.”

The exact amount of the extensive financial loss for local ag producers is not certain at the present moment. Farmers who lost crops to the hail storm do not know what exactly their totally loss will be due to the storm until crop insurance adjusters examine their fields, which will take some time because adjusters look at the fields hit by hail for days or weeks after because it takes crops some time to show the complete damage from hail and wind.

Ron Heilman added that it was difficult to see his crops damaged because the grains he has this season where showing promise.

“I have never seen crops like I have this year,” he said. “The yields looked good and I didn’t have any disease. So, it was hard to see the hail and wind storm come.”  

For Ron Heilman, he has farmed for 29 years and has never had hail damage until this year.

Unfortunately for his son this is Troy’s first year as a full-time agricultural producer and right out of the gate he saw crop damage from a storm.

“It’s being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Ron said. “That is about what it amounts to. I guess it was just our turn to get hit.”