About This Episode
Chris Barron drives to Greg Carson's operation just east of Marion, Iowa, days after the August 2020 derecho. Carson says winds hit about 114 miles per hour for roughly eight minutes through the corridor from County Home Road down to Highway 30. His entire 250,000 bushel storage site is a total loss: the adjuster told him to wipe it out. The dryer is tweaked and the grain leg foundation ripped the concrete out of the ground. A hired hand watched a bin fly over two grain trailers and total them.
The crop had already been hit on July 11, when golf ball hail and 70 mile per hour winds came through twice in one day. Carson thinks that earlier root lodging actually braced the corn, since it goosenecked back up and fared better than fields west of him that were steamrolled. But the derecho stripped the leaves off, so it looks hailed again. He guesses roughly another 30 percent yield loss, with some fields at zero, and the soybeans lost enough leaves to make finishing hard.
The storage problem is regional, not individual. Carson points to countless neighboring operations at similar 250,000 bushel scale with nowhere to put grain, plus Linn Co-op's Springville facility with bins twisted up and two large bins down at Martell Co-op. His answer was to call early in the week and get his name on a grain bagger before supply tightened. Very little of the crop was sold ahead, and everyone expects basis to be awful with commercial space gone.
“A lot of people without homes and all those things, and we can rebuild We can rebuild structures and stuff, but yeah, lives are important and people, that's the main thing.”
— Chris Barron
Key Takeaways
Sustained winds of about 114 miles per hour for roughly eight minutes wrote off Carson's entire 250,000 bushel storage site, dryer included.
The adjuster called the site a total loss; whether the concrete foundations can be reused gets reassessed only after the bins come off.
A July 11 event with golf ball hail and 70 mile per hour winds root lodged the corn, which Carson believes braced it against the derecho.
He estimates roughly another 30 percent corn yield loss from green snap and leaf stripping, with some fields at zero.
Grain bagging is the storage plan; he got his name on a bagger early in the week and says supply tightened fast after that.
Commercial storage took the same hit, with Linn Co-op's Springville bins twisted and two large bins down at Martell Co-op, so basis is expected to be punishing.
Full Transcript
Greg
Carson: And it all comes down to this. 2 on, 2 out, bottom of the 9th. The Farmers lead by 1. Full count, here comes the play at the plate, and it's the Ag View Pitch!
Chris
Barron: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch, and we will also be doing this one on our YouTube channel as well, the Ag View Pitch YouTube channel. And today We're down by Marion, Iowa, and I'm here with Greg Carson. Yeah. And have you introduce yourself, and we're going to obviously talk a little bit about the storm that went through, and we can kind of tell that there was some pretty significant damage. So have you introduce yourself, tell us where you're located exactly too.
Greg
Carson: Yeah, Greg Carson, located right here east central Iowa, just right on the east side of Marion, or just right outside of Cedar Rapids. Yeah, right off Highway 13.
Chris
Barron: Yep, so basically let's go back to the day the storm came through. Where were you at? What was going on?
Greg
Carson: And yeah, so it was Monday, just right around lunchtime there, right around noon. Sky got really black to the west. We were here working at the shop and Of course, the kids were at home, and so I jumped in the pickup and headed for the house because they were talking about pretty severe weather and didn't want them by themselves. So headed for the house, didn't think it was going to be anything like what the scope of this was, and got home, shut the garage door, and pretty much lost power at that point. And I live to the north, about 4 miles from here, And didn't get anything like this, maybe 80 mph winds at that location.
Chris
Barron: So in this area, what'd you end up with for wind then? What was it clocked at here?
Greg
Carson: I think they said right through this area, you know, Marion, maybe from County Home Road down to Highway 30, I think they said 114 mph for maybe 8 minutes, I think.
Chris
Barron: Okay. So pretty sustained.
Greg
Carson: Yeah, it was a good length of time.
Chris
Barron: Yep, yep. So how many bushels of storage are we— were we looking at here?
Greg
Carson: Right here is about 250,000.
Chris
Barron: Okay, so you had your insurance adjuster in here the other day, and basically what's the comments? What are they seeing? What do they say?
Greg
Carson: Everything's a total loss. The dryer's tweaked, everything's— they said pretty much just wipe the site out.
Chris
Barron: Yeah. So as far as crop damage, and we'll come back to this in a minute, talk a little bit about your crop damage. What are you seeing in the general area crop-wise and what are you seeing there?
Greg
Carson: Everything's a mess. We, July 11th, we had a storm in the morning come through from the north and there was golf ball-sized hail, 70-mile-an-hour winds. And if it didn't get it in that morning, that night we had the same thing come through. Maybe just a touch worse. And so pretty much every acre through here got just devastated that day.
Chris
Barron: So it looks like a lot of the corn is either sort of crimped, root lodged, or green snapped. How would you characterize a lot of the corn here?
Greg
Carson: Right.
Chris
Barron: I mean, is it kind of the combination of things? And you know, you talked about having a windstorm a month before that that maybe strengthened your crop a little.
Greg
Carson: Yeah, it seems like everything got root lodged really bad and, you know, put down that root, braced itself back up, goosenecked. So maybe it was prepared for this wind event maybe a little better than things west of here that you see just steamrolled. But the problem with that is, is it just, it stripped the leaves off completely. It almost looks like it was hailed on again.
Chris
Barron: Yep. So what's your guys' plan then harvest-wise? You know, a lot of guys are saying we're going to have to get out there at 30% moisture. But if the dryer's tweaked and gone, you know, that, you know, can you get some kind of a way to handle that? What's kind of the strategy there?
Greg
Carson: Still working on that a little bit. We're unsure of the moisture at this point. We pulled the trigger and bought a bagger. That's going to be our solution for storage.
Chris
Barron: What amount of storage? Did you have some contracted ahead of time or? That's got to go to town or not?
Greg
Carson: Some, very little.
Chris
Barron: Yeah, and that's kind of what we're seeing with everybody. There's very little sold this year. And so as far as the baggers, did you have any trouble getting a hold of those, or is, you know, are you hearing anything there as far as supplies and equipment and that kind of thing?
Greg
Carson: Yeah, we made the call early in the week there and got our name on one real fast, you know, so.
Chris
Barron: Okay.
Greg
Carson: I think they're pretty short supply now, sounds like, but.
Chris
Barron: So the baggers, the probably the option. There's probably, if this is a total loss here, basically the plan is they'll have all of this stuff basically removed. What about foundations and that kind of thing? We can't really see them from here, but I know your, your grain leg, the foundation pulled out of the ground actually.
Greg
Carson: Yeah, ripped the concrete out.
Chris
Barron: Yeah, so I mean, any of that salvageable from what the insurance company says, or all that a loss too?
Greg
Carson: Yeah, we're just going to get the bins off and the Insurance adjuster just said we'll have to reassess that at that point, you know, kind of take a look, but hopefully the concrete can be saved.
Chris
Barron: So you guys had some grain trailers out in the yard too. Yeah, talk about that.
Greg
Carson: Actually, one of the guys, one of the hired hands, was here. He didn't want to drive home, so he just was going to wait it out, and he actually watched one of the bends fly over the grain trailers and tipped those over and totaled those out, two of them. So, wow. Yeah, I got a couple of grain trailers gonna have to get found and coming.
Chris
Barron: Yep, yep. So it's kind of a crazy deal. Talk a little bit about the neighborhood. So, you know, obviously you were nailed pretty hard. Talk a little bit about what you see in the area as far as grain storage and kind of the impact there.
Greg
Carson: That's just it. It's, it didn't just, a tornado would have been better off because it would have just singled out a few individuals and it's It's everybody right here. I mean, there's, you know, countless large operators that they have no grain storage this year. And they're all, I mean, you know, plus or minus 250,000-bushel setups.
Chris
Barron: Yeah. What about commercial storage in the area?
Greg
Carson: Yeah, Linn Co-op, they have a large facility in Springville that twisted their bins up And, you know, they're unsavable.
Chris
Barron: So as far as solutions, pretty much the baggers, what everybody is talking about, or are you hearing—
Greg
Carson: Kind of what I'm hearing.
Chris
Barron: Maybe they're going to go to town, or in what town do you go to? I mean, other than a processor.
Greg
Carson: Right. That's, you know, everybody's thinking basis is just going to be awful. So what do you— you got to figure out some sort of a solution. Yeah. Yeah. Martell Co-op, they lost two large bins down there. So. Yeah, it's pretty widespread.
Chris
Barron: What about yield loss on corn? You know, if you had to guess in the area, you know, we talked about the various stages of the issues with the plant. I mean, if you had to take a wild guess, any idea on kind of yield loss, maybe on your farm anyway, as far as, you know, 10, 20, 30, more percent? Yeah, I mean, some of the fields are zero, it looks like.
Greg
Carson: Right, right. I've got to imagine it's gonna be another 30%. You know, just the little bit of walking around I've done so far, the green snap, you know, is pretty significant.
Chris
Barron: The bright side of it, it looks like the soybeans took it pretty well. Is that the case or not?
Greg
Carson: For the most part, the day of the storm, driving through some of them, it almost looked like they got hailed on too. So we lost a ton of leaves. So finishing those off is going to be somewhat challenging as well. Yeah.
Chris
Barron: Okay, well, is there anything I haven't brought up, or are there any topics, anything you think people like our listeners, the Ag View Pitch, would benefit from knowing, hearing about? I mean, is there anything— I mean, I know there's a lot of people that want to help. Cedar Rapids was, it was destroyed. Marion was destroyed. We drove through there and— right, just a major issue. Any Any comments on that? It's a devastating deal.
Greg
Carson: I know I always watch the news and everything, and you know, this— the scope of this is a lot broader and larger than I think people realize.
Chris
Barron: So it's, it's definitely a lot bigger deal, I think, than maybe what, what we're kind of hearing.
Greg
Carson: It is, it is. It's, it's devastating for sure.
Chris
Barron: A lot of people without homes and all those things, and we can rebuild We can rebuild structures and stuff, but yeah, lives are important and people, that's the main thing.
Greg
Carson: That's right. Nobody that I know in my family was injured or that you hear about. I think there was the one I heard was a bicyclist on a trail maybe lost their life. So, yep, loss of life was at a minimal though. Yeah, that's good.
Chris
Barron: That's too bad. But on the same token, we're thankful. Hey, really sorry about the devastation, but I really appreciate you getting some perspective out there. I just think we need more coverage to kind of let people see the devastation and how bad it really was. And really appreciate it, bud. Appreciate it. Thank you. And thanks everybody for listening, and we will stay in touch on the storm devastation. And thanks again for watching. We'll catch you next time on the Ag View Pitch.