Sara's House

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Farmer Friday: Much Needed Rain/Hail Storm

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Last Wednesday, I posted some pictures of what our corn was looking like because of the lack of rain.  We have not any any rain since the middle of June and the last few weeks have been hot, hot, hot.  We’ve reached 100 a few days and have been in the 90’s the rest of the time.  It doesn’t even get that cool at night.  
Our yard has turned completely brown (I haven’t mowed since July 2nd), some of my flowers are drying up, there are water restrictions in many towns and for many farmers who irrigate and the crops are really looking bad across the Midwest.  
But FINALLY we got some much needed moisture yesterday afternoon at our house.  It was one of those random storms that just pop up, but I was very happy to hear the thunder (although that doesn’t always mean rain).  Within about 15 minutes it started to rain and almost right away, it started to hail…..
At first the hail was only pea size and wasn’t doing much damage, but it just kept getting bigger and bigger.  

The storm only lasted about 15 minutes.  We received .4″ of rain and hail that ranged from pea sized to almost golf ball sized along with some strong winds.  That is not a good formula for dry, brittle corn stalks.  The moisture was much needed, but we could have done without the wind and hail.

At first glance our own crops look like they did ok during the storm, but some nearby neighbors weren’t so lucky.  Some soybean fields in our area got hit pretty hard and some areas of corn fields have large spots that were completely flattened by the wind.  Not good.

At our other farm that is about five miles away, they didn’t receive any rain at all.  Just some wind.  

All in all, we were thankful for the moisture, but we have a long ways to go before this crop comes out of the field this fall.  We’ll see what these next few weeks brings us!  Wish us luck!

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