How Severe Weather Effects Farmers

Severe weather isn’t fun for anyone but it’s especially unpleasant for farmers. Severe weather can cause lots of damage and destruction to a farm. Most farmers come in contact with it at some point no matter where their farm is located, and each type of weather affects farms differently. This is why it is especially important for farmers to have crop insurance. With crop insurance, you can be assured that you will be protected in case of severe weather. Below are a few types of severe weather and how each one affects farmers and their crops.

Tornadoes

Tornadoes are one of the scarier types of severe weather and while it might not be the first kind that pops into your head when you think about severe weather and farms it still has an impact. Tornadoes can injure or even kill livestock and can also cause the animals to get ill and pass away some time after a storm. For crops, the wind that comes with tornadoes can have damaging effects such as dispersal of seeds. Overall, with tornadoes comes a lot of clean up and severe damage to farms.

Drought

Drought is one of the most common severe weather types associated with farming issues. The most obvious effect that drought has on farms is the lack of crop growth. Without water, crops can’t grow, and it means farmers have to work to conserve the water they do have and use their irrigation systems strategically to make sure their crops are still healthy and able to grow. If a drought destroys their crops farmers can lose money and they may also have to spend more money on irrigation systems if they have a low water supply.

Flooding

Just as lack of water is bad for a farm, too much water can also cause damage. Floods can delay planting of crops and oxygen depletion of them once they’re planted. Flooding also increases disease infection and causes nitrogen loss in crops. All crops respond differently to flooding but they all risk damage from the overabundance of water.

Hail

You know that feeling of dread you get when a hail storm is coming, and you know your car is sitting outside just asking to get damaged? Well, farmers have a similar thought about their crops. The damage done by hailstorm depends on the size and frequency of the individual pieces of hail. The bigger the hail, the bigger the damage. Hail can bruise fruits and vegetables growing, cause foliar damage, or could completely destroy a crop depending on how much it’s grown.

Wind Storms

Wind storms are another type of severe damage that is not the most commonly thought of. Wind storms can pull crops out from the ground or knock them over. They can also dry out wet plants, move soil, and cause erosion. Another big problem that comes from wind storms is the movement and dispersal of seeds.

With crop insurance, farmers can be assured they will be protected against the loss of crops due to severe weather.