For those hit with hail in August, there are few options. The best many can hope for is to collect an insurance check.
Farmers say they'd rather deliver a crop to the elevator, but unfortunately it looks like that won't happen for a narrow band in Merrick, Hamilton, York, and Seward county.
More of the hail damage in Merrick County pic.twitter.com/JsPXBH3fAm
— NTV's Grow (@NTVsGrow) August 13, 2018
Justin McMeachan, a cropping systems specialist with Nebraska Extension said, "Driving around looking at a lot of fields. Some of them look pretty bad, all the way back to the ear, that's all that's standing in that field. What we're doing is talking about, what are the options? Can you put in a forage, can this be silaged, what are the concerns with mycotoxins or fungi in those crops, provide some advice on that."
Nebraska Extension organized meetings in Central City and Utica to give farmers guidance. One thing farmers can do is consider cover crops or silage, but there can be nitrate issues when grazing forage cover crops.
Unfortunately have now experienced hail at every #corn & #soybean growth stage. Eastern York & good portion of Seward County-Hard dough/early dent and R6 beans. @UNL_CropWatch @HailKnowUNL https://t.co/j7OX78OwZe pic.twitter.com/TuEDLZ3FS5
— Jennifer Rees (@jenreesources) August 7, 2018
Roger Hanke of Palmer said, "We're here to find out too what do we do with corn that's fallen over. We've got a cow herd, we can cut silage, I don't know, try to find what feed value the silage might have."
Unfortunately, when it comes to hail, researchers say there's much they don't know. You can see more University articles about hail here.
The University of Nebraska has an ice machine that shoots three - quarter inch ice 60 to 200 miles an hour to simulate hail storms, as they try to get answers.
McMeachan said as bad as the crops look, if there's green material left, there may be a crop to harvest.
But for many, they know begin the process of collecting crop insurance and dealing with an adjuster.
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