Hail damage | Insurance claims piling up following late July hailstorm in southern Alberta
Shattered grain stalks and mangled canola crops litter Allen Bergen’s farmland south of Spring Coulee, Alta.
A potential bumper crop of wheat, barley and canola was wiped out in a 20 minute hailstorm July 26 that cut a swath from Hillspring to Cardston and into Montana, damaging the crops and property of many.
“Some of it is so flat there’s not even a stalk standing and in some places it’s still standing, but there’s no heads left on it so it’s still 100 percent gone,” said Bergen about the cereal crops on the Bergen Brothers farm.
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The canola is also a writeoff, partially flattened with extensive pod damage.
“It was a very good crop coming, almost like a bumper crop, and 20 minutes later, it’s not,” said Bergen July 30. “This was supposed to be our breakout year, but it’s not meant to be.”
He estimates 2,000 acres were wiped out, although it will be five or six weeks before an insurance adjuster can visit, due to the large number of claims.
Golf ball-sized hail fell on his property, but Cardston residents reported tennis ball and baseball-sized stones that did millions of dollars in damage to roofs and vehicles.
The stones came so hard that several people were taken to hospital for treatment of minor injuries after being struck. One car dealership sustained more than $1 million in damage from broken glass, but the damage to crops in the region will come to a much higher total.
Rod Foggin, agricultural fieldman for Cardston County, said the storm was about 10 kilometres wide at its widest point and as of July 30 he didn’t yet have a fix on how many acres were damaged.
“I don’t know where to start,” said Foggin, when asked about crop damage. “It cut a pretty good swath and did some pretty severe damage to some areas of our county.”
Several large Hutterite colonies in the region sustained severe damage to crops and outbuildings. Foggin mentioned Big Bend and East Cardston colonies among those affected.
On the Bergen place, the roof of the house will have to be replaced and hail even punched through the tin roof on a new shop.
Every hose and plastic part on the air seeder is broken and three semi-trucks were dented and damaged.
“Even our barbecue, we have a stainless steel barbecue, and it’s like somebody took a big ball peen hammer to it,” said Bergen.
Many farmers in the hailed region are now chopping and silaging crops to salvage what they can, or baling them for straw. Crop maturity is such that it is unlikely to produce anything else.
Bergen is pondering his options. He doesn’t have livestock and feed is plentiful in the region due to a good hay crop.
“The other option is to get a disc in there and disc her down and mulch her up and start over next year, I guess.”
