The above photo is of an irrigated cornfield east of Minden, NE in excellent condition. Photo taken 8-15-24 by Mike McCann
...............................
Hi All... Today was a fun one for me as I was in the Suburban and out looking at farms all morning.
I have an out of country client (originally grew up in central Nebraska) who may want to sell his share of a family farm to his brother and then buy property on another continent and he wanted me to do a drive by and give an estimate of value on 2 farms owned by the family.
So off I went this morning driving the backroads of Nebraska. I love gravel roads!
One has an excellent corn crop and the other has some decent crop and a lot of "what the ? Where is the crop?" look to it.
About 6 weeks ago we had a huge storm south of Kearney.
Turns out this storm cut a long path of damage as these farms are 14 miles east of where the storm went through south of town here.
Wow...the north half of
the north farm got caught in the hail and literally destroyed in minutes.
It was so bad...the corn and soybean fields in the area have been cleared and many are plowed under.
The photo here is directly across the gravel road from the last photo below and you can see the damage to the crop.
It should look like the next photo or the one in the header at the start of this blog.
The south farm shown here...is 1 mile south and is in perfect condition. I would estimate close to 300 bushels per acre when harvested in about 6 weeks or so.
Both farms are leased and any crop insurance is usually the responsibility of the tenant.
Most farmers will have insurance and I hope this one did as both farms have the same tenant on them.
Many of the fields in the path of this hailstorm have been cut and/or disked (plowed) under (or both) and I am not sure what will be planted on them or if they will sit idle until next spring.
In this photo to the right the corn should be about 8 feet high and it appears to have had the plants and stalks cut for sileage.
This pivot irrigated field would normally yield around 250 to 300 bushels of corn per acre.
The stalks will be left as is until whatever is being planted as the stalks help prevent soil erosion.
The trees and crops in the far background received very little hail.
Many fields I saw on my excursion were plowed completely under which would lead me to believe they will have something planted on them yet this year...perhaps wheat or a cover crop to be raised for sileage. (Sileage is mixed with other feed for livestock.)
That is about it for now...
Until Next Time... Yes...it is expensive...but when you get hit by a storm whether farming or in your condo or on your boat or in your car...Insurance sure is nice to have!! Mike
Here are larger photos:
Comments(10)