Farmers Hit Hard by August 10 Derecho

On August 10th, a devastating derecho ripped across the Midwest. Widespread wind gusts of up to 140 miles per hour left an unmistakable path of destruction across several states, including in the heart of the Corn Belt. This is the part of the United States that dominates the nation in farming and agriculture. The August derecho mowed down over 10 million acres of corn and soybeans combined. Ty Higgins from the Ohio Farm Bureau knows a lot of farmers who have farmed for a long time, and they have never seen anything close to this in their career. The economic impact of this weather event is expected to be widespread across the farming community. The price of corn is going for about 3 dollars and 25 cents a bushel. So the overall economic impact could be 3.2 BILLION dollars if we can’t salvage some of the crop that was damaged. The good news…. Some of the fields might still be salvageable. If the powerful winds only blew the corn over, instead of snapping off the stalks, farmers will still have something to harvest. The bad news… consumers will still be feeling the effects into the fall and winter months. “Whatever happens on the farm… the consumers are going to feel it. That is just the way it goes,” Higgins said. Most of the corn in Iowa and Illinois goes toward feeding livestock and ethanol production. As a result, consumers nationwide could be in store for higher meat prices and increased fuel prices toward the end of the year. But it doesn’t stop there. Trickle-down effects could even carry over into next year as a direct result of the derecho. Ty Higgins explained, “A lot of the damaged fields were actually growing corn seeds for planting in the 2021 season. And so farmers are worried that there might be a shortage of seed corn for next year.” Stay tuned to WeatherNation as we follow the effects of the August 10th derecho, and continue to track every severe weather event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGUHI6l2mrQ