Tornadoes damage farms in Indiana

Aug 25, 2016

Twisters destroyed crops and homes

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Some farmers in Indiana are trying to rebuild after tornadoes swept through parts of the state, destroying everything in their paths.

In Montgomery County, Meredith Mangus’s corn crops were damaged and a 100-year-old barn was destroyed.

When the storm hit, Mangus and his family weren’t home. The house was spared and he understands how lucky he is. The home is currently without power and the family is using donated generators.

“We got three sheds here that are destroyed and that’s everything on the property but the house,” he told WISHTV. “We were wondering about the house and then we found out about the house. We praised God that we had a house.”

John Frey, also from Montgomery County, told Fox59 his farm was damaged by multiple tornados, but the outcome could've been much worse.

"It’s just crops, you know, it’s not people’s lives and we’re just fortunate nobody that I know of so far has been hurt," Frey said.

“They just come right through here, but that’s just crops,” he said. “You know, it’s not people’s lives.”

Earlier in the month, tornadoes ripped through properties near Zionsville, Indiana, forcing some farmers to alter their harvest plans.

(W)e’ll go very slow in the combine and (we’ll be) diligent to watch, probably make sure we’re doing it in the daylight so that we can see all the debris and not run it through the head,” Georgi Kaser told WISHTV on August 16.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.