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Friday hail storm came at a bad time for farmers

Amount of damage a hail storm does often depends on how far along crops are
12764225_web1_Storm-Stettler
This photo was taken of the storm over Stettler was posted on Twitter by Chris Ratzlaff.

For farmers hit by last Friday’s hail storm, the pummelling came at a bad time.

Alberta Agriculture crop specialist Neil Whatley said it was a “fairly typical hail storm” that tracked through Ponoka, Lacombe and Stettler and rolled through areas where canola, cereals and field peas are typical crops.

The amount of damage caused by hail storms has a lot to do with the timing.

“(Crops) would be compromised because we’re in the flowering period right now,” said Whatley from the Alberta Ag-Info Centre in Stettler.

Golf ball-sized hail stones were recorded in some areas. Ponoka Mayor Rick Bonnett said the town was spared but he had heard some area crops were 100 per cent write-offs.

It is still not clear how widespread the crop damage is. Claims are still coming in to the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation, which provides farm income disaster assistance and crop insurance.

“AFSC allows a 14-day period for hail damage to be reported by producers,” says Daniel Graham, manager of business risk management products in an email.

“As we are in the early days of this period, we are continuing to receive hail damage claims. To date we have received over 464 hail claims from the recent hail activity in central Alberta but expect these numbers to continue to increase.”

Whatley said how readily crops can bounce back from hail depends a lot on where they are at in their growth cycle. If half the branches of a crop are lost seven days after first flower, a farmer can expect to lose 15 per cent of the crop.

If the same damage happens two weeks after first flower, losses can hit 35 per cent. By three weeks, 50 per cent.

Crops pummelled by hail also take longer to mature, which can put harvest dates uncomfortably close to frost season.

“It’s just they’ll be set back and it could impact them at the other end.”

Crops damaged by hail also tend to be more vulnerable to fungal diseases he said.

Whatley said while flowering cereal crops could see as much as 50 to 75 per cent damage, field peas tend to be more resilient and damage will be less severe.

The kinds of hail storms that routinely pass through Central Alberta tend to be confined to a narrow strip. He has not heard much about the extent of Friday’s storm.

“I expected a lot of calls and I haven’t had any.”

July is a common season for what are called hail-breeding clouds.

Crop specialist Mark Cutts said he has not heard a lot about the damage levels.

“It seemed like (the storm) was fairly narrow. Unfortunately, if you were in the way it got you.

“It was the classic kind of hail storm. It did its thing where it wanted to. You either avoided it or potentially it damaged the crops to a certain extent.”

The storm which occurred on Friday only a few hours after Environment Canada issued a tornado watch for the Ponoka, Red Deer and Stettler areas.