ABERDEEN, Idaho—Growers in the Pleasant Valley area of southeast Idaho say potatoes and sugarbeets are beginning to rebound from a June 15 hail storm, but wheat losses will be more acute.
According to the National Weather Service’s Pocatello office, the storm brought pea-sized hail 8 miles west of American Falls at 5:11 p.m. and quarter-sized hail southwest of Aberdeen by 5:39 p.m. A meteorologist said hail in the Aberdeen area was abnormally large for the area, and hail completely covered the ground.
Aberdeen grower Dirk Driscoll said his potatoes, sugarbeets and wheat all sustained damage. Driscoll is waiting for his insurance adjuster to finish a review of his potatoes and wheat, which are both covered by crop insurance.
Estimated damage to his wheat ranges from 15 percent to 40 percent.
He said spuds should recover, but he might lose a few tons in yields.
Aberdeen grower Alex Tiede said in two of his potato fields the hail “took (plants) down pretty much to stems.”
Tiede said he was fortunate that the fields were planted in Ranger Russets, which are known to recover from damage better than many other varieties, and he’ll watch them closely to see if they yield odd-shaped tubers.
“I was pretty pleasantly surprised when we dug they hadn’t dropped any sets,” Tiede said.
Tiede said his sugarbeets should have time to recover, but he lost up to half of his wheat in one grain field.
Tiede said the storm covered a roughly 3-mile-wide swath near Aberdeen in hail, with the heaviest hail limited to about a half-mile-wide area.
“Some fields half looks good and the other half you’ve got hardly anything left,” Tiede said.
Source: www.capitalpress.com