Famously known as the “White Combine” hail storms are a potential threat for ag producers and farmers to lose what they’ve invested in. Producers in Deaf Smith County are still assessing damage from Sunday night’s weather phenomenon hoping the next round of storms will not bring more hail.

“They don’t want to hear that word too much, depending on what time of the year it is,” said Rick Auckerman, retired farmer/Ag Natural Resource Agent for Deaf Smith County.

The word is hail and depending on the time of the year and the stage of the crop a hail storm can mean the end of the growing season or a substantial loss for farmers.

“It devastates the crop, obviously we’ve got some of our wheat crop that is destroyed some in different stages,” said Auckerman. “The size of the hail in the county here was between pea size to softball size and I’ve heard a lot was golf ball size hail.”

Producers have started planting or are waiting to plant seeds in the ground for the upcoming growing season. If the seed hasn’t gone into the ground the land becomes hard-packed and makes it tougher to absorb potential moisture.

“Potentially it can crust the soil the seeds won't emerge because it’s formed a hard panel over the soil surface,” said Auckerman.

Hail can have a negative impact on livestock. As a storm approaches, cattle will seek shelter under trees or in barns.

“Cattle tend to take care of themselves,” said Kevin Buse, rancher and owner of Champion Feedyard. “They’ll go where the trouble is not, depending on the size of the hail it can have a dramatic effect. You know kind of no different than a human staying out in the hail for an extended amount of time. You just want to hunker down and keep safe cattle will do the same thing.”

There is a theory that cows will lie down to ease their stomachs which are supposedly sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure.

“They’ve got an internal barometric pressure system,” said Buse. “They just know when trouble is coming and they basically just start to get out of the way it doesn’t matter the storm they’re just trying to get out of the way of trouble.”

With the help of technology ag producers and feedlots are able to observe the weather and kind of project what’s coming. The projections range from five to ten days out that way they can make the necessary adjustments and plan accordingly when it comes to cattle.

“Our best friend is the ten-day forecast,” said Buse. “Anybody in agriculture that’s probably the first thing we look at in the morning.”

More storms are projected to come across the Texas Panhandle in the days and weeks ahead.