.STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Duane A. Lienemann,
UNL Extension Educator,
 Webster County
June 1, 2012 Edition
I don’t think it is news to people in South Central Nebraska that we have had storms hit us this past week. I guess my infamous rain dance finally did end up doing some good, although it is a little later than I had hoped--except the rain also came with pea-size, even quarter and up to golf ball-sized hail that of course had differing effects on corn, soybean, and wheat fields. It should also be noted that the bulk of the rain (and hail) was in the top half of the southern tier of counties. I braved extensive head injury by going out and collecting samples for a picture and to put in my freezer. I have proof of the moisture that came down in the wrong form.
I have trudged through a lot of fields this week looking at various degrees of damage from very little to a 100 percent wipe out of the existing crops. Of course everyone who got hailed wanted to know immediately how much damage was done and if it would be best to replant. The first thing to remember that in order to get a good reading on many fields that you must play the waiting game, and for impatient farmers that can be quite the chore. The rule of thumb is that you need to wait at least a week and preferably 10 days after a hail event to make a proper hail loss assessment, but some crop adjusters will go out after about 5 days. Of course in some fields it is almost a no-brainer.
The series of storms seem to follow pretty close to the same path in our area. From what I could determine, for those who are familiar with this part of the country, the path of hail seemed to start at about the Highway 4 and 10 intersection in Franklin County to Campbell then arcing across to northern Webster County at Bladen to a wider expanse from south of Blue Hill north to Highway 74 at Ayr in southern Adams County. It continued its damaging ways in an even wider area from south of Pauline to Lawrence through Deweese in Nuckolls County and then east to the Fairfield area in Clay County.
From discussion with producers, and from my own personal witness, it appears that 37 pivots in that path were overturned with various degrees of damage. Some were completely flipped over, some with about half of the towers affected and several with one or two towers. Unfortunately, some pivot points had extensive damage as well. I also saw a couple of grain bins that were dented or concrete flooring damaged (raised up) and one empty grain bin pretty much destroyed. Some barns and other outbuildings had portions removed or moved by either a very strong straight wind or a potential twister. Some believe it was what is called a “tree-top” twister, or one that does not quite reach the ground but still causes a lot of damage. I am certain there is lots of other damage that people experienced that have not been reported.
One thing is certain, we had various amounts of damage done to soybean, corn and wheat fields and one of the biggest questions is “Should I consider replanting?” The short answer is that at this point in the season, replanting may be an option, but you need to determine if it is the right option for your field. There are several things you need to consider in making your decision. Let’s take a look at a couple of them. The first is to determine the growth stage of your corn.
Being able to determine corn growth stage and accurately estimating the amount of defoliation are essential to accurately assessing hail loss. If you don’t know the growth stage or the physical attributes of your crop, it will be difficult and inaccurate at best to make a determination. I think the rule of thumb producers must remember in corn is that until the V6 growth stage, losses from leaf defoliation are usually minor with most loss occurring from stand reduction. At this 6 leaf growth stage the growing point breaks the soil surface and the potential for unrecoverable damage increases. Before that stage it is likely that your corn may not be as damaged as it initially appears. In other words, looks can be deceiving.
While hailed corn plants at the current growth stage can look seriously ugly, the long-term damage and potential yield loss may be less than that which would occur from replanting now. Even at the 7-leaf to 9-leaf stages, 50% of leaf area can be destroyed and cause only 5% yield loss. I know that some of our fields had far greater than 50% leaf area loss. It can be difficult to distinguish living from dead tissue immediately after a storm, so delaying your assessment seven to 10 days as I mentioned earlier can provide a more accurate picture. Another reason for delaying assessment is that some plants initially surviving a storm may soon die because of disease infection entering at the sites of plant or stalk damage. I know that in years past I have witnessed corn that was torn up or bruised seriously and we ended up seeing stalk rot and other diseases come into play. Another consideration is to see what happens to the “buggy-whipped” leaves that could be tightly wound around the stalk. These need to slough off or dwarfed corn plants with just nubbins or less could be the result.
I think we will have fewer problems with hail damage to soybeans because so many of these fields had just started to emerge or were being replanted. But if your beans were up nicely and you are worried about hail damage, I suggest that you try estimating crop yields based on stand reduction, and stem damage. You will also need to know the growth stage of soybeans and then check to see if you have at least one cotyledon attached and also look at the stem for color and buds. Several UNL Extension resources are available to help you assess crop damage at various growth stages and determine your management options. Feel free to contact our office for these resources. “Evaluating Hail Damage to Corn” (EC126), and “Evaluating Hail Damage to Soybeans” (EC128) can also be found on the internet. Good luck to all of our producers as they determine if they have to replant or leave it to Mother Nature. The bright side is that some got rain!
The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: www.webster.unl.edu/home