Nobody likes to see their crops get dinged up or worse by hail, says Steve Gauck, a regional agronomy manager for Beck’s, based near Greensburg, Ind. Beck’s sponsors Soybean Watch ’23.

How much actual damage hail causes depends upon many factors, Gauck says, including size of hailstones, amount of hail and length of the storm, size of crop, weather conditions after the event and many more factors.

“Many times, especially early in the season, the damage may sound and look worse than it really is,” he notes. “You need to remain as calm as you can; then check the field. You may even need to give it a couple days to see how plants recover. Then you can make a better assessment.”

The Soybean Watch ’23 field is a great case in point. Planted May 14, soybeans were in the VE to V2 stages of growth when an evening storm popped up. The localized storm produced about half an inch of rain plus pea-size hail. The soybean field caught the hail.

A couple of days later, there was mud splashed on some leaves, holes in scattered leaves and tips missing from some leaves. Overall, the grower reported that damage was on the light side. In fact, 10 days later, the crew installing a moisture probe in the field didn’t realize there had been hail until they were told. No yield impact is expected.

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Hail impact

Hail has such little impact on potential soybean yields during all vegetative stages that the table used by insurance adjusters doesn’t show potential yield loss for defoliation until soybeans reach bloom stage at R1. The exception would be a storm so severe that stems were destroyed. Find the table in the Purdue University Corn & Soybean Field Guide.

Even at R1, if 50% of all leaves are destroyed, expected yield loss is only 3%, or 2.1 bushels per acre on 70-bushel soybeans. “It takes a lot of damage to get 50% defoliation,” Gauck says. “We’re talking on the whole plant, not just upper leaves.”

The later into the reproductive stage that hail hits, the greater the chance for yield loss. At R3, which is beginning pod, 20% defoliation could produce 3% yield loss, and 50% defoliation could trigger up to 17% loss, or nearly 12 bushels per acre on 70-bushel beans.

Damage due to potential yield loss peaks at R5 to R6, which covers seed development stages. A 40% defoliation loss could produce 12% yield loss, or 8.4 bushels per acre, and 50% total leaf loss could mean 19% less yield, or a loss of over 13 bushels per acre. Very severe hailstorms when beans are fully mature and awaiting harvest can cause catastrophic losses by knocking beans onto the ground.

“Hail on soybeans early in the season usually isn’t a big deal,” Gauck sums up. “The deeper into the reproductive season it happens, the greater the yield loss.”