Storm flattens corn
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 09/22/2011 8:40 AM
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LIME SPRINGS, Iowa —An early morning complex of thunderstorms Sept. 2 flattened corn fields, downed trees, snapped power lines and damaged grain bins and farm buildings in northern Iowa.
The National Weather Service's Weather Forecast Office in La Crosse, Wis., said the thunderstorms produced damaging winds, some as high as 70 miles per hour, near Mason City and continued through central Wisconsin.
Corn was badly lodged and in many places lying on the ground. Soybeans that had been chest high toppled and are now knee high. Crop damage ran in a band across northern Worth, Mitchell and Howard counties.
Dale Schwade, owner of A & K Feed & Grain Co. in Lime Springs, whose family also farms, flew over the area Sept. 4 to survey the damage.
He estimated that the most severe damage is in an area five to seven miles wide and at least 50 miles long. Corn is leaning over for several miles.
"It's going to have a huge impact on yield," Schwade said. "We had a good crop before that, but with the storm it changed from a good to a mediocre crop at best. The big problem will be harvesting. It's going to take longer, there will be more wear and tear on machines, and it will be a dangerous harvest."
Schwade and his son, Dean, who does most of the farming, have ordered plastic Roll-A-Cone attachments for their corn head to help pick up downed corn. Between his own ground and what he custom farms, Dean has about 4,000 acres of row crops.
Dean started combining downed corn that was already mature last week to experiment with how it was going to go at harvest. It went better than he thought, Schwade said.
"We usually combine 100 to 120 acres per day," Schwade said. "This year, if we do one-third to one-half that we'll be fortunate."
Schwade said the worst damage occurred west and south from Lime Springs to about Highway 9. There was some hail with the storm.
Schwade said the storm destroyed bins and farm buildings on several farms and snapped transmission lines south of Chester.
Three grain bins were destroyed and a fourth bin was damaged on the Mike and Deb Lewis farm south of Chester.
"Between 6 and 6:30 a.m. we heard a huge rushing sound," said Mike Lewis. "By the time we got up and dressed, it was over."
He said 1,000 acres of his 1,200 acres of corn were "banged up hard."
"We're trying to figure out how we can bring in as much of this $7 corn as possible," Lewis said.
He farms with his son, Josh, and son-in-law, Luke Lidtke. They've been researching combine attachments and think they'll buy a reel to pick up downed corn.
Lewis is still getting information about replacing his bins. Two are 70,000 bushels and one is 60,000 bushels. Another 60,000-bushel bin is damaged, but they will be able to use it. If it's possible to get some of the bins rebuilt before harvest, they'll do that, but Lewis doubts there's enough time.
"We'll pick up the pieces and see what we can get done," he said. "We have insurance. With harvest coming, time is against us. If we can't get the bins replaced, we'll haul the grain to town. We won't be pilling corn on the ground here."
Both Schwade and Lewis said that the most important thing is that no one got hurt.
"The rest of this we can deal with," Lewis said. "We'll get through it."