A little over a week ago, northwestern Pennsylvania — including Union City, Corry, Columbus and Spring Creek — was pummeled with golf ball-sized chunks of ice as hail accompanied a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning that tore through the area. Social media was flooded with photos and videos of dark, swirly-looking clouds and the hail coming down, pounding on cars, houses and fields.
One group now facing difficulties from the aftermath of the storm is area farmers and crop growers, so The Journal reached out to a few of them to see how they fared.
Todd Benedict, owner of Sunset Dairy out of Bear Lake, grows a corn crop in Columbus, with some fields growing along Route 6. He planted 650 acres this year overall, and estimated about 200 of those were injured by the storm.
Benedict explained that it takes a week or so to tell how much of the actual stalk tissue was damaged, as opposed to leaves being torn or stripped.
“The rule of thumb is, 50% leaf loss is 15% yield loss,” Benedict said. From initial assessments, he believes those fields to be at around 70% leaf loss right now, so he expects roughly a 50% yield loss for that portion of his crop.
He went on to say working with crop insurance can be a serious challenge, because very rarely will the farmer get enough back to actually replace what was lost.
“Even though there’s 0% feed value to it, it’s not a complete loss — that’s their argument,” Benedict said. “It’s not enough to replace the crop ever. It’s not like I can go buy 200 acres worth of corn.”
Bill Odell of Odell Farms out of Panama, New York, also has land on the Pennsylvania side where he grows corn for his cows. He said for him, about 50 acres off of Route 6 east of Columbus will likely see little more than a 10% yield loss. Then, there are 40 acres in Lottsville off Route 957 that is looking at more like a 30% yield loss.
This is not enough for an insurance claim on his policy, Odell explained.
“I only have catastrophic insurance, which means I'd need a 50% yield loss on my entire corn crop, which is around 1,750 acres. So I'm not going to have an insurance claim,” he said. “It's a small percentage of my corn, but obviously I'm upset about the loss. Some of the other guys had much worse losses, and I'm sorry for that. I know how much work and money it takes to do this every year. ”
He went on to say that it’s not always easy, being so dependent on Mother Nature’s cooperation.
“Weather is very unpredictable, and we have no control over it,” Odell said. “We do what can, and after that, we have faith that God will provide the rest.”
Someone else who grows corn near Route 6 in Columbus is Bob Nickerson, of Clymer, N.Y. He said most of their field corn — which is used to feed the livestock — is going to be OK, but some sweet corn was badly damaged.
Tim Nordland, owner of Nordland Farms Produce in Columbus, said that for many, the storm was a hit-or-miss. Unfortunately, the golf ball-sized hail hit Nordland’s for about 20 minutes, and most of the damage went to the fruit, which is now dented.
Nordland, who supplies produce to Munsee’s Market in Corry, said he’ll still have the selection he normally does, but it’ll be later than anticipated.
Each year, he plants several plots of everything so there’s backup in case something happens. Now, his focus is on picking out the pelted fruit and putting down fertilizer for some of those plants that can be restarted.
“Everything is pushed back about three weeks,” Nordland said. “We’re just pumping fertilizer to try to start new growth. We’re going through and picking out the bad stuff.”
Nordland said he’s never really had insurance on those plants, so it’s a tough loss.
Before the storm, he noted the growing season was overall pretty good, and there are some plants that went above and beyond the typical yield. One of those is peppers.
He encourages the community to pick up some of the excess produce or produce that was lightly battered by the storm, especially for canning and bulk foods.
Source - https://www.thecorryjournal.com
