FREAK hailstorms that ripped through the region over the past week have wreaked havoc on producers, with one farmer losing $30,000 worth of barley. Emu Vale's Les Kable was left devastated by the unusual weather event. "It was Sunday, November 27 and it was the storm that went through Killarney,” he said. "It got to us about 4pm and I think it was a bit worse here. "I've never seen anything like it in my time, and I've been here all my life. "The mountains up from me were covered in a blanket of white and the hail was inches thick on the ground here. "A couple of farmers out here were saying the same thing as well. It was unbelievable.” When the hail had settled, Mr Kable estimated he had lost about 200 tonnes of barley. "It was just annihilated,” he said. "Completely ruined, in parts it was chopped right back to the ground, nothing left. "My rain gauge was even smashed as well, and the same thing happened to a lady up the road.” The amount of time and money lost due to a freak hailstorm is staggering. Mr Kable estimated the loss of barley alone to be about $30,000. "The wheat copped it as well, but I'm not sure of the extent of the damage,” he said. "I'm about to take the header down there now, so I'll find out pretty shortly how bad it is. "The wheat is a bit tougher than the barley but I can see parts where it's been affected pretty badly. "It's definitely bad at the top end of the paddock, more than half is gone.” Mr Kable said he usually had his crop insured. "I generally do, but not this year, the premiums are pretty high,” he said. "It was all ready to go to, it happened right on harvest time. "I'd already started the harvest and had to go away to help a bloke with a paddock of oats and got back late on Saturday. "On Sunday I started harvesting and the bloody storm came through and I had to get the header into the shed quick smart.” As well as his winter crops of barley and winter, Mr Kable also had some summer sunflowers in. "They're at about a foot high, so they saved them a bit, being so small,” he said. "We've had a few good drops of rain since the storm as well, and that's helped to spark them back up a bit.” Mr Kable said there was little he could have done. "There's really nothing you can do,” he said. "It's a lot of time and money down the drain. "We would have started preparing the ground for this crop in January and then planted in June/July, there's all the spraying and it gets taken out right when it's ready to go. "You're at the mercy of the storms, it's the way of God isn't it? We'll just have to try it all again next year and hope for the best. "You've just got to soldier on...or make your overdraft bigger.” Source - https://m.warwickdailynews.com.au