Heat and hail frustrate farmers

For many northern Linn County farmers, relief from a hot, dry early June turned out to be no relief at all.

For them, the much-needed rain the evening of June 15 came with hail stones that damaged or destroyed crops on more than 5,000 acres.

'I've been farming since 1964, and that's the worst hail I've ever had,” said Stephen Martin, who farms with his son, Albert, at several Linn County locations.

Martin said a second storm last Monday evening also brought leaf-shredding hail to his home farm between Waubeek and Whittier.

'I haven't looked at the crops yet, but the lawn is covered with leaves. I expect there will be more damage,” he said last week.

Martin said the hail damaged several hundred acres of corn and soybeans, reducing knee-high corn to less than a foot in height.

'I don't think we'll have to replant, but it sure set the crops back, and yields will be hurt,” said Martin, adding the losses will be offset by both hail-specific insurance and federal crop insurance.

Martin said the dry spell preceding the recent storms - 0.02 inches of rain at the Cedar Rapids airport from May 29 to June 13 - also caused problems.

He and his son had to replant 80 acres of soybeans that failed to germinate in the dry soil, he said.

Meaghan Anderson, the Iowa State University Extension field agronomist for Linn and nine other counties, estimated that hail damaged 5,000 acres of corn and soybeans in an area around Alburnett.

Some crops had holes in the leaves, while others were defoliated, she said.

'I think most of it will recover, but some will definitely be replanted to soybeans,” Anderson said. In either case, there will be yield loss.

Anderson said the dry spell preceding the storms 'was not long enough to hurt the crops.”

Like the Martins, other farmers planting soybeans into cover crop debris experienced germination problems in the dry soil, she said.

Despite the arid early June and scattered hail, 'In general, crops remain in pretty good condition, with 78 percent of corn and 74 percent of beans rated good or excellent,” Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey said last Tuesday in his weekly report.

ISU Extension agronomist Mark Licht said the dry early June forced corn roots to go deep for moisture - a condition that could help them weather the traditionally drier months of July and August.

Crops went into the dry spell with a full soil moisture profile, which helped them keep growing with little stress, he said.

Licht said he is much more concerned about the availability of moisture in mid-July when corn goes through the critical pollination stage that greatly influences crop yields.

'We did see some leaf rolling” as the corn plants reacted to conserve moisture during early June bouts of heat, wind and low humidity, said Virgil Schmitt, ISU Extension field agronomist for southeast Iowa.

The rule of thumb, he said, is that a corn crop loses 1 percent of its potential yield for every eight hours of leaf rolling.

'Overall, that probably had a fairly minimal effect,” he said.

Crop Conditions

Here is a look at the condition of key Iowa crops as of June 18, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service:

Corn - 14 percent excellent; 64 percent good; 18 percent fair; 3 percent poor; 1 percent very poor.

Hay - 17 percent excellent; 66 percent good; 15 percent fair; 2 percent poor.

Oats - 15 percent excellent; 62 percent good; 22 percent fair; 1 percent poor.

Soybeans - 10 percent excellent; 64 percent good; 22 percent fair; 3 percent poor; 1 percent very poor.

Topsoil moisture - 2 percent surplus; 71 percent adequate; 22 percent short; 5 percent very short.