Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2020

Derecho!
what in the
On top of everything else that has happened in 2020,
in August hurricane-force winds struck yet one more blow
BY Nancy Mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
When a derecho swept
through the Midwest
Aug. 10, Eastern Iowa
was in the path of the
storm.
Hurricane-force winds left downed
corn, damaged grain bins and headaches
about insurance, plant disease and harvest.
“A swath of damage from Benton
County through portions of Linn, Jones,
Cedar and Clinton counties is consistent
with intermittent straight line winds in the
100-130 mph range,” the National Weather
Service reported just days after what
it called the “roughly once-in-a-decade
occurrence in this region.”
The last derecho was in 2011 and,
before that, 1998.
“What is unique about this event,
making it even more extreme, is the long
duration of high winds. Many locations
experienced sustained high winds and
damaging gusts for 30 to 45 minutes,” the
weather service said.
Concerns about the condition of crops
and how it will impact harvest equipment,
yields and profitability are at the top of
the minds of farmers in Eastern Iowa
counties whose fields were among the
3.57 million acres of corn and 2.5 million
acres of soybeans in Iowa that took the
worst of the summer squall.
Local farmer Bob Bowman said the
damage varies in fields, and it’s not
always visible to someone passing by the
crops on a highway or gravel road.
“When you drive by, it doesn’t look
bad. But if you try to walk through
Photo from Iowa Corn livestream courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, at a tour in Radcliffe Iowa, signs a USDA disaster
declaration for 18 Iowa counties on Sept. 3.
those fields, they are impossible to walk
through,” said Bowman, who is a past
director and is still active in the National
Corn Growers Association.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike
Naig noted the triple whammy of the
derecho and drought that the state has
weathered along with markets upset by a
pandemic.
“This is an unprecedented situation
on top of another unprecedented situation,”
he said in an online presentation
organized by the Iowa State University
Extension and Outreach office in late August.
COVID-19 supply-chain disruptions
on top of weather events are starting to
compound stress on farmers.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny
Perdue toured Iowa just before Labor
Day and designated 18 Iowa counties
as primary natural disaster areas. Cedar,
Clinton and Jones counties were among
those that became eligible to apply
for emergency USDA loans after the
120 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com