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Hail, strong winds and heavy rains damage south-central Minnesota crops

A farm management analyst says a combination of hail, strong winds and heavy rains late Sunday damaged crops in south-central Minnesota.

Kent Thiesse tells Brownfield thunderstorms moved through Sibley, Nicollet, Brown and Blue Earth Counties into the early hours of Monday morning.

“You had a variety of different losses, and regardless of the type of loss we’re probably at the end of the window for any replant opportunities, for sure with corn.  And even for soybeans, mid July we’re probably only looking at 20 to 25 bushel-an-acre yield potential.”

He says the variable impact on corn and soybean acres complicates crop insurance decisions.

“A majority of farmers use enterprise units for their crop insurance, which means they’re insuring all the acres of a given crop in a county.  So even though you may have some pretty significant losses on a farm or two, you’ve got to weigh that against what your overall yields are.”

Thiesse says if overall yields are above-average, farmers might not have a loss big enough to qualify for indemnity payments.

He says those payments are more likely under the costlier optional unit crop insurance.