John Swanson has been getting some timely rains on his farm near Mentor, Min., but last Wednesday, June 21, a hail storm moved across part of his land and did some significant damage to a corn and soybean field, both of which were on some of his irrigated land. “It was just a little strip of hail that didn’t cover a very large area, but it really did a good job on the crops,” John said. “The insurance adjusters were out today and looked at it. There were spots where we were counting 50 percent of the soybean plants that were broken off. “The soybeans were about 6 inches tall and the first flowers were just starting to come out before the hail hit.” The corn didn’t fare much better-the plants were approximately knee high before the hail hit. But after the hail storm some of the plants were completely broke off, while on others the leaves were shredded. “It must have been some fairly large hail stones and high winds with it to shred the leaves so completely,” he noted. “The corn was in the V-8 stage when the hail hit and there is virtually no leaves left in many cases. The growing point was broken off and the stalk that was left standing-so there will be some loss.” Those fields not hit by hail are looking good, especially the wheat. John has had a couple half-inch rains since our last visit and a few other shots of rain of a tenth to two-tenths of an inch. “If you get enough of those small rains, it starts to add up,” John said. “ They put some side-dress nitrogen, a liquid 28 percent formula with some sulfur, on the corn that wasn’t hailed on and after applying it they received a little shot of rain. “We have noticed the corn has perked up, gotten nice and green and really taken off again,” he said. “I suppose some of the nutrients were down far enough that the plant wasn’t reaching them. Much of their time the past couple weeks has been spent spraying. They earlier had sprayed a tank mix of a fungicide and herbicide on the wheat crop, and now the wheat crop has headed out and is starting to flower. So that means it is time for another fungicide application that will protect the head from Fusarium head blight. “It has been a challenge for spraying to have the winds blowing in the right direction and not too much,” he said. “But we have most of our spraying caught up. It seems like spraying is almost a constant job during the summer, with spraying fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and top dressing some nitrogen-all of those take some time.” The recent cool days have been ideal for wheat growth, John noted. “The wheat on the lower grounds looks really nice,” he said, “but the wheat on the higher and sandier ground is starting to show some moisture stress.” Source - http://www.farmandranchguide.com