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| Duane A. Lienemann UNL Extension Educator |
A good friend of mine from Ravenna got a disturbing phone call and photo of the damage done to his house, town and obviously the crops in that area. I called home to hear the word that Blue Hill had high winds and driving rain but not much hail and I sighed in relief. I waited out the storm centers and headed home feeling bad for those in Gibbon and Ravenna that made the news with reports of damage done.
Little did I know that in the morning during my usual trip to the coffee shop that I would hear horror stories of the storm that left its ugly marks on crops, pivots, buildings and even pasture in a long strip just west of Blue Hill, running a bubble or two off North and South. I, of course, had to do a tour and headed up to Highway 74 to where I first saw the damage and followed it south past Highway 4. The wheat that had been standing that day suddenly looked like it had been cut, and way to close to the ground. Cornfields and soybean fields looked like something out of a science fiction novel. Eerie sticks of various lengths and sizes, not giving credence to the glory that had been there the day before.
Of course there were variations of damage to fields and even amount of rain that fell. I was informed of everything from “not a darn thing but wind”; to “oh an inch or a little better”; to “heck I don’t know, the gauge ran over”! I think there was on either side of highway 4 reports of 4-6 inches and by the flow of water and erosion. There are even spots along the country road where the running water left proof of its fury. So I would say that range was pretty close. I also saw some full ponds and a dam or two that broke. When was the last time we worried about that?
Naturally I have had several queries about some things we need to look for, what we can do with these fields, and some alternatives to give us cover or protection from disease and of course weeds coming where there should be a canopy of crops. Let’s take a look at some resources this week that are available to producers who have had the misfortune to win the lottery of weather calamities. The first place I suggest is going to the UNL Extension Disaster Recovery site at http://www.extension.unl.edu//disaster-recovery which is a great resource to check out and share with others. This site compiles resources for crops, livestock, horticulture, families, finance, cleanup, etc. You can also find a wealth of crop resource information at UNL CropWatch: http://cropwatch.unl.edu
It is good to have Dr. Roger Elmore back with us. Many of you will remember him from the South Central Ag Lab which closed abruptly several years ago and we lost some good people to other states and locations. Well, he is back into the IANR folds and he has been active with working with these storm decisions. He, along with other UNL Extension specialists, have been working overtime to bring information to our producers over the last several weeks and now we will have the opportunity in this area to benefit from the expertise. You will find several articles of work at the CropWatch site. Specific topics that are up at this time with more to come are: “Cover Crops for Storm-Damaged Fields”, which can give us some alternatives in barren, storm-damaged fields. It is proven that cover crops can help protect and nurture the soil for the next crop season. A second article on “Post-Hail Assessment: The Benefits of Patience”, will allow you to view crop photos after hail in west central Nebraska and almost two weeks later as they recover.
Of course the standard answer from crop insurance adjustors is that we must wait 10-14 days to make a definitive decision on the amount of damage or insurance coverage allowed. We are seeing fields that have a good chance of coming back, including many soybean fields. Which leads me to a third article – “Soybean Storm Damage and Crop Insurance Options”, which may give soybean producers some idea of what they need to know when visiting with their crop insurer. You will be surprised what that 10-14 days can do in the recovery of corn and beans – patience is a virtue!
Emergency Outreach Meetings Being Held to Aid Landowners with Crop Damage from Recent Storms: Be sure to mark your calendar for two meetings that will be of great help to our producers in the major area hit. The meetings both will be held in different towns on Thursday, July 17 with the first one staring at 9:00 a.m. at the American Legion Club in Gibbon, and another be held at 2:00 p.m. at the Community Center in Blue Hill, These meetings are open to the public and will be conducted in an informal, open-discussion format with experts presenting and answering questions on: replanting options; crop insurance ramifications; nitrogen capture & cycling in hailed corn; cover crops for forages/soil health; and the NRCS EQIP Storm Damage Cover Crop Initiative. Landowners are encouraged to bring in samples of their damaged crops for an assessment of the extent of hail damage and the likelihood of recovery. Central Platte NRD, UNL Extension, Green Cover Seed, Ward Lab, and Arrow Seed are sponsoring the meetings. For more information contact Dean Krull at (402) 469-0155 or Keith Berns at (402) 469-6784. I was really keeping my fingers crossed that we would be spared with our crops looking so good, but Nature rules! Please keep our farmers who have had these losses in your thoughts and prayers! Those and your encouragement might be all that some of them will have to harvest.
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
1 comment:
Prayers work better than finger crossing. Let's spend more time on our knees and less time crossing our fingers.
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