Been praying for those impacted by this weekend’s storms and my heart has been heavy for you all. It is so hard to see beautiful crops destroyed so quickly, especially right now with sidedressing, cultivating, and post-season herbicide apps applied. It’s also difficult to see the damage to homes, buildings, bins, pivots, vehicles, and livestock. I haven’t personally seen the damage yet, so am sharing some experiences and things to look for based on the photos some have shared with me. This is a longer article, but sharing what I’ve learned from earlier season hail storms in 2022-2024. This week’s cooler weather could slow any plant recovery, but that will be something to watch for until insurance adjusters can come and assess crops.

Helpful Resources

• HailKnow Website (has 6 sections including assessing damage): https://cropwatch.unl.edu/hailknow
• Webpage: https://cropwatch.unl.edu/hail-know/assess-my-damage
• Infographic: https://cropwatch.unl.edu/Hail/Images/HailKnow-Damage-Assessment.png
• Assessment Video: https://cropwatch.unl.edu/hail-know/video-hail-damage-assessment
• Corn GDD Tool: https://mrcc.purdue.edu/tools/corngdd
• Bean Cam Replant App: https://ipcm.wisc.edu/apps/beancam/

What to Do Now

• Look at fields to see damage extent. Know what growth stage the field was in at time of the storm.
• Call crop insurance.
• Call an agronomist or review resources to anticipate what to look for in plant recovery.
• Flag plants in the field to assess recovery. This greatly aids in learning and has helped me tremendously! Taking a picture now and a week later of the same plants also helps.
• Hand plant some soybeans in the ground in the next few days at depths from 0.5-2″ to assess how they react to herbicides in corn fields.
• Consider options on what to do if the crop is totaled or not including herbicides applied, crop rotation restrictions, marketing and crop insurance, weed control going forward, etc.

Assessing Damage to Corn

Hearing a range of damage from plants that are stubs to broken off plants. The growth stage of the plant will be key in these decisions in addition to the amount of damage to the crops. It’s important to know the growth stage at the time of the storm. You may have an idea on the growth stage from crop scouting reports. You can also do this yourself by finding the tallest plant standing in an area and dig it up (if available). What I describe here is the agronomic method of counting collars and nodes which is different from the leaf method that crop insurance will use. Slice open the plant to view the growing point. Every leaf on a corn plant is attached to a node. There’s 4 nodes where the first 4 leaves attach in a triangle at the base of the plant. Then there’s a small gap and you will see a line that marks node 5 followed by a larger gap and a line that marks node 6. Because of the cooler soil temps this year, I’m finding smaller gaps between nodes 4 to 5 (nodes are closer together than the photo below). Pulling collard leaves back, they will snap off at whichever nodes they are attached to (which can help you in determining the more advanced growth stages from 6 to 8 leaves). The growing point doesn’t come above ground till typically V5-V6. Corn in the area is mostly past this stage at the V8-11 stages.

Next take stand assessments by counting 1/1000th of an acre. I actually feel corn plants at the base as I count to see if they feel firm (likely to survive) or mushy (not likely) and only count plants which appear most likely to survive. I also keep track of which ones are questionable. It will also be important to look for plants that have bacterial top rot set in. In the past, we’ve had to talk with crop insurance adjusters to not count those plants; many adjusters are more aware of this, but sharing so you can have that discussion if needed.

From the 2022 and 2023 hailstorms, we were using a factor of 10 bushels/ac for each plant that we felt would survive. Depending on the situation, we were often keeping stands of 15-20 plants (15,000-20,000 plants/ac even in irrigated fields). I know in the end, some wished they would’ve replanted and others were pleasantly surprised with the yields. Honestly, harvest was sickening in many fields with the amount of palmer present. Weed control is the most difficult and a layby of a residual herbicide using drops could be helpful, depending on residual load already in the field. We also had some growers interseed cover crops like brassicas and annual ryegrass to help keep weeds down. It does provide a different look than most want, but it kept weeds down and produced some nice forage (again depending on herbicides). That is a discussion with crop insurance but interseeding is allowed in the RCIS rules and can help with uptaking excess nitrate and with weed control.

Regarding fungicides, we don’t recommend them from the standpoint that hail doesn’t create fungal diseases. At some point, they could be helpful to aid in stalk strength. However, if you’re considering this in the next few weeks, consider proving it to yourselves with on-farm research this year so we do have data for the future. All you do is spray fungicide in enough width so two 2 combine passes can be obtained. Then skip an area for at least 2 combine passes. Then treat again and repeat across the field. Fungicide Protocol for Hailed Corn and Soybean. Please let your local Extension educator know if you’re interested in this!

Timing of fungicide app: ISU did a study to simulate hail damaged corn at tassel stage within an average of 3 or 8 days post-hail. They didn’t find the timing to provide any yield effects. They also didn’t find a statistical yield increase (90% confidence level) in fungicide application to hail damaged plants vs those which weren’t hailed although they also reported a numerical increase in 12 of the 20 fields. They also interestingly found that hail damaged crops had less foliar disease than non-hail damaged crops in their 3 year simulated hail-damage study.

Replanting Corn

For those who end up with totaled fields and need to replant corn back to corn based on herbicide restrictions and/or contracts, I’ve put together a chart for Clay Center data using the GDD tool developed for the MidWest as a partnership through several Universities. This tool can be found at: https://mrcc.purdue.edu/tools/corngdd and can be used with weather station data closest to any of you reading this. Just select your area, alter the Planting Date, Relative Maturity, and look where the full black layer line occurs compared to the average 30 year frost line.

Achieving 150-200+ bu/ac replant corn is possible with these shorter-season hybrids. Things to be aware of: Replant corn will struggle with late-season insects and disease. We saw earworms severely damage replant corn in 2022 and the damage resulted in increased ear molds, particularly fusarium. Be aware of this for any food grade corn that you have on contract to reduce potential problems with mycotoxins like vomitoxin. We also had early frost in 2022, so much of the corn did not achieve black layer prior to frost (was anywhere from 1/4-3/4 starch line). Anticipating this, I drove a route prior to frost to document where the starch line was in plants and documented what happened in the coming weeks. The plants will prematurely form the black layer. We’re often told that premature black layer formation would impact test weight of the kernels. I also did an informal, anonymous survey where growers shared where their corn was at the time of frost and what their moisture and test weight was at harvest. Surprisingly, test weights were mostly above 52# at moisture from 17-22% that had been 1/2 starch or beyond at the time of frost. When dried down to 15.5%, test weights ranged from 55-58#. Food grade white corn that was beginning dent to 1/4 starch at time of frost was the most affected with test weights at 45-52#. I didn’t hear of any Coops not honoring the contracts because of this, but am unsure of dockage for individual situations. I’m not saying what was found for us regarding test weight will always be the case, but it’s good information to know what was experienced in our situation with more recent hybrids. Replant corn for high moisture corn or silage for livestock feed is also an option.

Assessing Soybean

Soybeans were in the late vegetative to early reproductive stages with today being the longest day of the year. I know people want to write them off now, but it’s incredible what they will do with some sunshine and 7-10 days. Soybean is incredibly resilient because there’s multiple growing points available on the plants (depending on the height and the damage to the outside of the stems). Each field is a field by field assessment, though. UNL and University of Wisconsin recommend leaving stands of 50,000 plants/ac. The bigger issue is weed control. Check out this cool app from University of Wisconsin on replanting bean decisions: Bean Cam Soybean Replant App.

Replanting Soybean

If changing from corn to soybean in the replant decision, maybe it’d be wise to poke some soybeans in the ground now just to see how they fare with the herbicide that’s been applied? And maybe you try poking them in at different depths? We normally recommend planting 1.75-2″ based on UNL research, but when we’ve replanted after hail, we’ve typically recommended to plant around 1″ to hopefully be above any herbicide band that moved into the soil (if planting into a corn field) and to hopefully get the beans out of the ground quicker.

The following article shares considerations for soybean when planting mid-June or after: https://go.unl.edu/20ry. In summary of it, for maturities, UNL recommends to stick with as similar maturity as possible till around June 15 and then consider switching to 0.5-1.0 maturity group less. Different thoughts on row spacing. Drilling or 15″ can close canopy sooner but the tradeoff can be potential for white mold if you have a history of that disease. 30″ also allows for cultivation for weed control with application date restrictions on certain herbicide-tolerant bean traits. Wider rows should hopefully close canopy unless the beans get hit with off-target herbicide. Seeding rates are also debated. Many sources recommend to increase them by 10% (up to 20% if drilling) after early June if normally seeding 140K or less (Iowa State didn’t find a yield benefit to increasing seeding rates if seeding more than that in late June). Also, a fungicide seed treatment can be helpful when replanting soybean as phytophthora in particular tends to show up, regardless if you’re planting into a corn stand or a bean stand. If you’re debating whether or not to replant into an existing soybean stand, you could also consider replanting some areas at an angle and leaving some areas as an on-farm research study. Please reach out to your local Extension educator if you’re interested in this.

Other Options

Should any fields be totaled, some may be interested in planting cover crops for grazing or just weed/erosion control in them. Looking at the herbicide labels and also the Weed Guide for rotation restrictions can help with making planting decisions for different species. Planting a cover crop in spite of that restriction is the risk the producer takes as to if the seed will germinate and survive or not. We’ve learned a lot regarding herbicides and tolerance to cover crops after working with growers with interseeding research and after numerous hail storms. We often recommend utilizing mixes to allow for diversity and aid in something growing. Regarding grazing restrictions, the herbicide grazing restriction technically stays with the crop it was applied to…so any corn or soybean plants/residue would have the grazing restriction. It’s important to be aware of these restrictions before considering seeding an annual forage crop to ensure you’re not grazing a field off-label. Warm season cover crop species and/or mixes can be used this time of year. For crop producers who are not familiar/comfortable with livestock, I’ve tended to recommend pearl millet because it doesn’t have the prussic acid risk with frosts like sorghum species due. However, there’s now prussic acid free sorghum sudangrass hybrids that can be purchased that doesn’t carry that risk during frost. There are a number of warm season cover crop mixes available from cover crop dealers depending on your specific goals and needs.

I truly wish everyone the best with decisions. This amount of loss takes a huge toll. Each situation is unique in damages received, crop insurance taken, amount of grain forward contracted, and other life things occurring. What I know for me is that my faith in God, my belief that He is in control, and His continued faithfulness to me is what has sustained me. Tears can be healing. Just would encourage you to also find a healthy way to take care of yourself such as talking to a trusted friend, prayer, journaling, exercise, or participating in a hobby. Wishing you all the best as you assess damage and make decisions for the remainder of the growing season.

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Wellbeing Tips:

(Adapted from: Gilbert Parra, PhD; Holly Hatton-Bowers, PhD, and Carrie Gottschalk, LMHP, MS)

How Much Time do You Have?

2 Minutes:

• Breathe
• Stretch
• Laugh
• Doodle
• Acknowledge one of your accomplishments
• Say no to a new responsibility
• Look out the window
• (adapted) Faith based prayer

5 Minutes:

• Listen to music
• Have a cleansing cry
• Chat with a co-worker, friend, or family member
• Sing out loud
• Jot down dreams
• Step outside for fresh air
• Go for a brief walk
• Enjoy a snack or make a cup of coffee/tea
• (adapted) Read faith-based devotional

10 Minutes:

• Evaluate your day, Write in a journal
• Call a friend
• (adapted) Meditate, Prayer, Devotional
• Tidy your work area
• Assess your self-care
• Draw a picture
• Listen to soothing sounds/music
• Read a magazine

Additional References to Previous Articles with Photos

Hail Damage Update

Hail Damage Assessment