July 23, 1973
Hail strips hopes for record yields Northeast of Wayne
Farmers northeast of Wayne are hoping for cool, cloudy weather to give their crops a chance to recover from Wednesday night's hail damage. Some of the crops will not recover even under ideal conditions, however. The hail damage was just too severe.
The storm dumped hail over several square miles starting about
two miles north of Wayne and running northeast several miles.
Farmers Ed Meyer and Merle Roeber said their soybean fields
were totally ruined in the hail storm, which was accompanied by
heavy winds and rain. They farm five miles north and one east of
Wayne.
Damage to some of their corn fields was nearly as severe, they
said, and their oat fields were stripped of most of their kernels.
Because of that, Roeber will not get the record yields he was hoping for from his corn, oats and bean fields.
Last year, his corn crops yielded up to 120 bushels to the acre, just like several other fields in the area. He was looking for the corn yield to be even better this year.
"Now it looks like some of my fields might yield 60 bushels, but I
doubt it," he said.
Like some of the other farmers in the area, Roeber does not carry
hail insurance.
