
Two large and severe hail storms occurred in Iowa during the 2009 growing season. The first occurred on July 24, 2009 in northeast Iowa and caused damage to over 400,000 crop acres, with at least 10 percent of this acreage receiving around 100 percent yield loss. The second storm occurred on August 9, 2009. This storm travelled approximately 150 miles, from Western Sac and Ida counties to Eastern Grundy county. This hail swath was about 10 miles wide, between highways IA175 and US20, with 3 miles in the middle being almost completely lost. In both storms, the stones were large, and created major damage to plants. In the second storm, developing grain also was affected raising concerns about marketability of grain from hail damaged areas and potential mycotoxin contamination. As corn producers in the affected areas made decisions about the management of their damaged crops, the most common question they had was, “what impact does hail damage have on grain quality, ear rot severity and mycotoxin contamination?”
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/gary_munkvold/133/