July Storms Damage Prairie Crops

Jul 30, 2019

Earlier this month, storms across western Canada produced tennis ball sized hail in some areas, causing severe crop damage.

The storms occurred between July 6th and the 18th.

Canadian Crop Hail Association companies are investigating 3,241 claims made by farmers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Murry Bantle of Co-operative Hail Insurance Company said customers in Manitoba filed 26 claims after storms July 8 and 11 damaged oilseeds, pulses, cereals.

Manitoba farmers in Brandon, Rapid City, St. Cloud and Morden filed 39 claims after hail damaged crops July 13-17. The storms hit west-central Manitoba to southeast of Winnipeg.

“So far we have completed 76 percent of our June storm adjustments with below the 5-year average payouts,” Bantle said. “July 1-10 storms are 23 percent adjusted with average claims so far below the 5-year average. However, some of the outstanding early July storms have been deferred.”

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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.