Some county tobacco growers built extra drying sheds this year to help house what they expected would be their largest crop in years.
A damaged crop of tobacco on Furnace Road in Eden Township.
They planted and sprayed and weeded and topped their tobacco through the summer.
Then, right before harvest, disaster struck.
Quarter-size hail Sunday pounded the leafy green and yellow plants on about 200 of the county's 1,000 or so farms on which tobacco is grown.
About half of those hit — mostly in southern Lancaster County — lost the entire crop.
A less severe hail storm July 27 destroyed the tobacco on a few farms in Colerain Township.
Those in the industry say losses from the storms will be in the millions of dollars here. Most of the state's tobacco production is in Lancaster County.
Farmers planted about 6,100 acres of tobacco here and about 1,000 acres were partially or completely lost in the storms.
"I've seen severe hail damage before, but never so widespread," said Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co.'s Raymond Rinehart, who has worked in the industry for 20 years.
Nothing but stalks remained in many tobacco fields.
Hail shot holes in plants' leaves in other fields, ruining their value.
Sunday's hail storm slashed about a two-mile-wide swath from Pequea and Providence townships eastward through Strasburg, Eden, Bart, Paradise and Sadsbury townships. A few dozen farms north of New Holland also were struck.
Hail damaged corn and other crops in addition to tobacco, but tobacco fields are where farmers lost the most money.
Jeff Graybill, Lancaster County's Penn State Extension Service agronomy educator, said growers typically see a profit of $5,000 or more per acre of tobacco, not counting their labor.
Most farmers here grow less than 10 acres.
Graybill said some farmers had harvested 5 or 10 percent of their tobacco before the second storm hit.
Many, however, lost part or all of their crop just a few days before harvest.
It's too early to tell what percentage of the entire county crop was lost, Graybill said.
Most Amish and Mennonite farmers do not buy crop insurance, he added, so some of them face a total loss.
Tri-Leaf Tobacco Company of New Holland was still dealing with damages from the first hail storm when the second one hit.
More than 130 growers contracted to sell tobacco to Tri-Leaf sustained hail damage, Pamela Haver, Tri-Leaf's executive vice president, said Thursday.
Some of those were hit by both storms.
Haver said most farmers told her they've never seen hail damage so bad. One farmer in his 70s said he had — in the Leola area, in 1941.
Rinehart said typically only a few county farms lose their crop to a hail storm each year.
Not this time. At least 55 farms growing tobacco for Lancaster Leaf sustained hail damage.
"We had a beautiful crop," Rinehart lamented.
So much hail fell on one farm, he said, that some of the ice balls were still on the ground Tuesday — two days after the storm.
Rinehart noticed some damaged siding and window screens on a few farmhouses, too, he added.
Graybill said some fields had different levels of damage from one end of the field to the other.
Also, dollar loss can vary widely from farm to farm.
Some farmers get a $1 or more extra per pound of tobacco for perfect leaves that can be used for cigar wrappers. A hole or blemish on those leaves makes them unusable for wrappers, Graybill said, although the tobacco can still be sold.
The agronomy educator said much of the corn in the area of the storms was grown for silage to feed livestock.
Those farmers might lose just 20 percent or so of their yield, if the ears are still attached and can be harvested.
On the other hand, corn that farmers want to harvest for livestock feed carries a higher risk of mold if it has been damaged, he said.
Graybill said he did not know how many acres of corn, soybeans and other crops were affected by the storms.
He said farmers could use at least one or two more good rains to bring those crops to maturity.
"About 70 percent of the county is deficient in rainfall," he said.
Haver mentioned something else that struck her after the hail storms.
"I've never seen such stoicism," she said, mentioning some farmers who won't have any tobacco to strip in coming months.
"One man said he guesses they will build a new schoolhouse because they have nothing else to do this winter."
Staff writer Ryan Robinson can be reached at rrobinson@LNPnews.com or 481-6032.
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