Hail damages crops; extent unknown

A hailstorm on Saturday afternoon damaged crops in Baker Valley, but the extent hasn’t been measured.

Jan Kerns, who with her husband, Tim, grows potatoes on their Rainbow Ranch west of Haines, said they haven’t surveyed the damage to their crop.

“We have a potato field that got hit pretty hard,” she said.

The storm hit around 4 p.m. on Saturday, Kerns said.

At this point in the potato’s life cycle, hail can strip leaves from the plants and break the stems. While the actual potato is safe underground, it needs the leaves and stems to stay healthy to reach full size.

Potatoes are Baker County’s most valuable field crop, with sales totaling $10.4 million in 2010.

Baker County ranks fourth among Oregon’s 36 counties in potato production, behind Morrow, Umatilla and Klamath counties.

The Kernses have hail insurance, and an assessor from their company will check the damage within two weeks or so.

Trent Luschen at the U.S. Farm Service Agency office in Baker City said he hadn’t received any reports of crop damage as of 8:30 this morning, but he has observed some effects from the hail while driving around the valley.

Cory Parsons from the Oregon State University Extension Office in Baker City had the same answer.

“There’s some out there,” Parsons said.

The crops more susceptible to damage are potatoes and wheat, he said. There is some silage corn damage, he said, but that will most likely recover.

The hail was sporadic, he said, but where it fell it was “fairly intense.” The hailstones he saw varied from 1/2 to 3/4 inches.

Wheat may not show its full damage for up to two weeks he said.

The only other damage he expects is a decrease in the quality of any hay that was on the ground at the time of the storm.