Hail and strong winds damage crops in southern Sask.

Summer may have just started, but it has been a stormy start to the season for much of Saskatchewan.

Strong winds and hail damaged crops in the south on Sunday night.

Tornado and thunderstorm watches spread throughout southern Saskatchewan on Sunday night, with the Assiniboia area reporting hail the size of tennis balls.

Areas like Big Beaver experienced high winds and hail between the size of peas and golf balls.

Warren Volke, a crop reporter in Big Beaver, said the area received two inches of rain Sunday night and hail.

“The golf ball size fell basically without wind then the intense wind came up with the pea size,” Volke said. “So that caused a little more damage because of the wind.”

Volke added most of the damage to crops is wind damage with some stem damage. But chickpeas don’t need much to sustain damage.

“Anything that can scratch the stem is where disease can get in,” said Volke, who added more fungicide will have to be used to prevent more damage to the crop.

Farmers in the area are all too aware of the effects of hail. Volke said a year ago to the day there was another hailstorm that damaged a number of crops.

“Some of the people that got hit and wiped out last year got hit again,” he added.

This year has also been a unique one for storms according to Volke, who said over the past two weeks they’ve received more rain than all of 2017. Volke also anticipates more storms will be on their way to do damage this year.

“The way the storms are coming in … a lot of the rains are falling over us but at the same time it’s the intense rains with wind,” said Volke, who added that conditions are ripe for more severe weather.

“It feels like things are changing,” added Volke. “There’s definitely more moisture in the soil that’s going to be evaporating and creating conditions for general and extreme storms.”

Strong winds that damaged crops were also reported in the Ogema area.

Richard Linton, who owns land seeded with canola, durum, peas and lentils, said he’s concerned about what the wind damage did and how hail can affect crops.

“It sets the crop back,” said Linton. “It was a very good-looking crop so depending on the percentage, it’s not very good financially, that’s for sure.”

Linton added that he anticipates 40 percent of his crop to be damaged, although not totally.

Linton’s farming partner, Blake DeBruyne, said although the land didn’t see hail damage, the strong winds did damage their canola.

“It definitely hurts,” said DeBruyne. “Especially with canola prices the way they are.”

Volke said a lot of the damage is to be determined as farmers were still assessing the effect of the storm.

With the season still in its early stages, it’s too early to tell the damage that hail and wind will have on output.

“It’s thunderstorm season,” said Volke. “I guess a person just prepares for it, and hold on to your hat.”