Hail Hits Washington Wheat Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Excitement in Eastern Washington recently as lightning, strong winds, heavy rain and hail hit certain areas, that sent farmers scrambling to survey the crop damage afterwards.
Washington Association of Wheat Growers board member, and Fairfield farmer, Marci Green says the storm blew through pretty quickly and some areas were hit very hard …
GREEN … “On our farm, we’ve never had a hail claim, ever, on our farm. And, there were fields that were just completely flattened, wheat fields. And a lot that all the heads were shattered out and broken off.”
Green says about a third of their farm is wheat, and …
GREEN … “About a third of our wheat was damaged. We also grow garbanzo beans and lentils and peas. I think our peas are all okay, but the garbanzo beans and lentils, some of those also experienced losses from the hail.”
The marble-to-golf ball-sized hail, Green says hit farmers from Fairfield to Rockford and beyond…
GREEN … “Most of the farmers that I know that were impacted, like I said, it was kind of a narrow path that it took, but the ones that were impacted haven’t ever seen hail like that before and have never had hail damage to that extent, and hope we never do again.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on this once-in-a-lifetime storm and the damage it left behind for farmers in Eastern Washington.
