News
Severe storms pound areas of the Western Corn Belt, again
Severe storms tore across parts of the West Corn Belt Tuesday night destroying crops and farmland.
South Central Nebraska farmer Randy Uhrmacher tells Brownfield medium-sized hail and 70 mile-per-hour wind gusts brought widespread damage. “It pretty much just leveled a lot of the fields at the ground. Anything at the ground got completely chewed off and it’s down to bare ground.”
He says there isn’t much damage to buildings, but the wind took a toll on pivots. “That just seems to be typical with every storm that comes through this spring. Some place gets a high enough wind it just topples them pivots.”
Jay Reiners a farmer on the Nebraska Corn Board tells Brownfield hail busted up windows and crops. “Most of everything was marble, but it was just so windy, it was like a rifle shot through there.”
He says he’ll have to replant what was lost. “Corn was V-6 to V-7 in most of the fields. Beans were V-2 to almost V-4 and those are all shredded up. Those beans might come out of it, but I imagine the corn is probably done for.”
And, he says, Mother Nature has created challenges this year because of wildfires, drought, wind, dust and storms. “We’re looking at extraordinary income potential off of both soybeans and corn this year. I hope someone gets to enjoy it.”
This is the second major storm that hit Nebraska this week after a system brought large hail, damaging winds and widespread flooding to Western parts of the state Monday.
