The devastating August 10th derecho impacted 14 million Iowa cropland acres, according to new estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Iowa Soybean Association on Friday cited new data from the USDA?s Risk Management Agency showing 37.7 million acres of farmland across the Midwest was affected by the storm. Iowa?s 14 million acres included 5.64 million acres of soybeans and 8.18 million acres of corn. On Tuesday, the Iowa Department of Agriculture had estimated 10 million acres may have been impacted.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds spoke about the aftermath of the derecho during her press conference Friday afternoon in Cedar Rapids.
?Iowan?s have endured the unimaginable over the last five months,? Reynolds said. ?A worldwide pandemic that continues to change almost every aspect of how we live, work, and interact with each other. On Monday, a massive weather event swept across the state like nothing we?ve ever seen in recent history. Most of us had not even heard of a derecho before then, but now, we know it all too well.?
Further citing USDA data, the Iowa Soybean Association said the derecho affected 58,000 policy holders with a liability of around $6 billion ? including $1.86 billion for soybeans. Iowa Soybean Association director of information and education, Aaron Putze, said the new data from USDA was shared Friday with farm groups to ensure storm damage claims are filed in a timely manner.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig recently said the damage came at a pivotal point of the growing season.
?We?re not that far from harvest,? Naig said. ?We?re in the middle of August and in the next 6-to-8 weeks, harvest will begin in earnest. There?s a lot of things folks are thinking about from an equipment standpoint, storage standpoint, and certainly from a crop health standpoint. We know that a lot of attention is focused on Fall and harvest.?
USDA Risk Management Agency is urging farmers to expedite the filing of loss claims with their agents. The rule is for claims to be filed within 72 hours of identifying loss, but allowances will be made for those unable to communicate due to disruptions in communications services, the agency said.
