Wednesday's storms are an example of the severe weather we get in the La Crosse area. In a region with a high number of farmers, that severe weather can make for hardships during the growing season. With snow falling into May, weather already shortened this year's growing season. While moderate rain-fall benefits farmers, storms with hail and tornadoes take a serious toll that can result in the loss of thousands of dollars in crops. Different parts of the season bring new challenges for farmers. "Depending on the stage of the crop, if it's far enough along, lets say it's head-high or so, a lot of times that crop won't grow back up," President of the Wisconsin Farmers Union Darin Von Ruden explains, "most of the corn at this time now yet is still young enough, so it will probably straighten itself out if we do see some winds." Matured crops combined with more severe storms make the later summer months more dangerous for agriculture. "Usually in August when the storms seem to get more violent. This time of year we don't really have to worry about it, ya know if you look at what happened out in South Dakota last week there was some corn that was shoulder high that got shredded down to being knee-high, and that's probably going to be a total loss for that crop," Von Ruden finishes. Farmers can buy crop insurance to help compensate for any lost crops, but Von Ruden has not heard of any major losses from Wednesday's storm. Source - http://www.wxow.com