By PAT SHAVER Courier staff writer
June 10, 2009 11:56 pm
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BLOOMFIELD — The same storm that hit Bloomfield Sunday night, causing damage to many buildings and homes, also hit nearby farms in Davis County.
For Jerry Padget, a farmer in northeast Davis County, Sunday’s storm was devastating.
The hail destroyed all 350 acres of his crops.
The severe storm blew through Davis County with reports of hailstones 1.75 inches in diameter.
“It hailed for five minutes here, which was a tremendous hail storm,” Padget said. “There are hundreds and hundreds of acres that are completely destroyed.”
Padget said his farm has seen hail damage in the past, but nothing to the magnitude he saw from this storm.
“The hail shreds the crop; there’s just nothing left,” he said.
Despite the storm’s strong winds and rain, Padget said that 90 percent of the damage was caused by the hail.
His corn had all planted by the beginning of May and beans by May 15. Padget said he might replant beans, but it is too late in the season to replant corn.
“We’ll have crop adjusters come out next week and appraise the damage and make the decision to replant or wait until next year,” Padget said.
“We probably got enough insurance maybe to pay for our input costs,” he said. “[But] there ain’t much there for a profit. It’s pretty devastating around here.”
Dennis Smith, another farmer in Davis County, had at least 500 acres of corn destroyed. He estimated it costs about $300-350 to plant an acre of corn, not including taxes, combining and land costs.
“It’s going to hurt; we lost our best corn out of it,” said Smith. “We didn’t need this stuff; I know that.”
Smith doesn’t plan on replanting this late in the season, although he is still waiting to see what he will get back with insurance.
“It’s been something else this year, just fighting the weather,” Smith said. “But you can’t control Mother Nature.”
Phil Garrett, a farmer in northeast Davis County, saw damage to his house and lost all the crops on his 470-acre farm.
“Most of the crop is destroyed. The ground is a mess. The oats are flat, beans are gone and corn is nothing but a stump right now,” said Garrett.
In the 1970s, a hail storm hit Garrett’s farm, causing similar damage.
“It could be a lot worse; there’s people that go through a lot worse then what this is,” said Garrett. “It’s something that everybody doesn’t see everyday, people haven’t seen corn beat down to an inch stub.”
Garrett said it might be worth it to replant beans. When the storm hit in the 1970s, he replanted and saw a 60-75 percent yield.
“If the weather would change, which it hasn’t yet, we could replant beans, but I won’t replant any corn,” he said.
Pat Shaver can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at p.shaver@ottumwacourier.com.
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