Hail damaged crops near Comstock, Minn., Sunday night.
Hail damaged crops near Comstock, Minn., Sunday night.
Sunday night, August 26, Mother Nature was moody.

"I could just hear all of the sudden the hail was coming and then it sounded like gunshots, and all of the sudden you got, ping, ping, and I knew that was glass breaking and in just a matter of second the bedroom was full of hail," said Comstock resident, Ron Bjorland.

Ron Bjorland, owns a hobby farm smack dab in the middle of one of the hardest hit areas.

He says his home is far from the only thing in town damaged.

"I've talked to two guys that farm around here yesterday and they both said they lost about eighty-five percent of the beans and the corn," said Bjorland.

The stalks are barely waist high, but some of the cobs still hang on, although the stalks are extremely damaged, WDAY talked to a local farmer who tells us that the next time we get a strong wind you can kiss this corn goodbye.

"Some areas are completely decimated they're gone, that's a complete loss," said agronomist Mike Bjertness.

A wheat field looks like it's been cut, but it's actually just flattened by the hail.

WDAY talked to farmers who say when nature decides to devastate an area like this there's really only one thing you can do.

"You just pull your boots up and go again you know just get your insurance money and go," said Bjorland.

Beans and corn should be covered by insurance, but when it comes to hail damage, sugar beets are usually not.

"Our primary concern is the farmer we're worried about him," said Bjertness.

And for good reason, beet farmers could lose thousands of dollars. When sugar beets are damaged like this they lose their sugar trying to regrow new leaves, so the only hope farmers have to make a profit is to harvest beets early and they can only do that if the sugar company lets them.