The damage from Saturday's storm at Johnson Taber Corn & Potatoes outside of Taber (Facebook/Johnson Taber Corn & Potatoes)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Farmers cleaning up, examining damage after storm

Jun 14, 2020 | 2:48 PM

BARNWELL, AB- Farmers are mopping up after an intense storm brought thunderstorms, hail and even a tornado to parts of Southern Alberta.

James Johnson is a third generation farmer, and is part owner of Johnson Taber Corn & Potatoes alongside his brothers and father.

“We lost probably about half of our sweet corn and about 30 per cent of our spuds,” he said.

This is the second time his farm has dealt with a damaging hail storm in two years.

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“August 6, 2019 was when the last hail storm rolled through and that’s when we lost 80 per cent of our sweet corn and 70 per cent of our potatoes,” he said.

On Saturday, Johnson said the hail storm started at around 8 p.m.

“There was kind of two swaths. The very first one had a lot bigger hail stones but it didn’t come down quite as thick, and then there was like a 15 minute gap and then the second storm rolled through and it just came down, smaller hail size but just a lot more intense and thicker and that’s what really beat everything up and shredded everything,” he said.

Johnson said the full extent of the crop damage caused by Saturday’s storm is still unknown.

(Facebook/ Johnson Taber Corn & Potatoes)

“On Monday we will go out with our agronomist and come up with a game plan of which ones we can save and which ones we can get some fungicide spray on them to help them from getting disease entering the plant and coming up with a game plan of what we can do to help them recover”

Next door, another farm is also cleaning up.

Michel Camps owns CP Farms in Barnwell and grows potatoes, sugar beats and grain.

“It was raining and hailing very, very hard. It put dents in our vehicles, holes in our siding from our house,”

“ It damaged about a thousand acres of crops and destroyed about 350. I think a lot of it will come back but it’s definitely been a small disaster for sure,” he said.

(Facebook/ Johnson Taber Corn & Potatoes)

Potatoes and grain endured the brunt of most of the damage and Camps estimates the total damage to be around $400,000. While insurance will likely cover it, the damage is still tough to face.

“As farmers when we grow crops, of course we need to make a living, but at the end I want the crops. I don’t want the insurance money I want the crops. We spend so much time and energy in getting the crops seeded and getting the ground fertilized, just to see it get wiped away in a matter of minutes, it’s definitely heartbreaking,” he said.

(Facebook/ Johnson Taber Corn & Potatoes)

On Saturday, severe thunderstorm warnings were in place for parts of southern Alberta, including the Taber region. Several tornado warnings were also issued in the Taber region and Newell County.