Storms Bring Concerns For Farmers And Ranchers
While northwestern North Dakota missed out on many of the severe thunderstorms earlier this summer, the same can not be said after the last few weeks. While the storms brought some beneficial moisture, ones like the one on Thursday, Aug. 7 brought damage.
Mountrail County Ag Agent Jim Hennessy spent most of his Friday out surveying damages, saying that south of Powers Lake to Powers Lake and across the northern edge of Mountrail County sustained the worst of the damage. He found lentils and peas beat to the ground. Sunflowers were broken off below the heads. Most of the wheat was good, but some had parts of the heads broken off. Canola was shattered out in areas and barley heads were pounded out.
Looking at this particular storm, Hennessy said that it appeared to start near Crosby and then angled down towards Powers Lake before straightening out and heading east.
One bright point that Hennessy noted is that there are some beautiful soybean and corn crops out there now after the last few weeks of rain. He says that on the 4th of July he had real concerns about the viability of these crops. The old saying is that corn should be knee high by the 4th of July, but at that point they were lucky to be halfway to the knee. Some crops he was finding this week were now well over his head.