Severe thunderstorms across North Dakota caused crop damage in several counties.
Near Towner, a swath of hail estimated to be four to six miles wide chopped off growing crops while the high winds flattened what survived the hail.
In Dale Kuhn's fields, nearly 900 acres of corn that's critical to his dairy operation took the brunt of the storm.
Golf ball-size hail hit in this area - and a tour of his fields shows what that can do - leveling alfalfa fields and causing significant damage to corn and grain fields.
Kuhn says the hail hit in a year where the corn crop in particular was promising.
(Dale Kuhn, Towner Area Rancher) "This was probably the nicest start for corn we've had in quite a few years. It was about knee-high already, most of it, and they say if at the Fourth of July you've got knee-high corn, you're going to have good corn, well it was knee-high on the 20th."
A local crop insurance office said it will take about a week for adjusters to determine the extent of the damage to crops hit by the weekend hail.
Source - http://www.kxnet.com/
