Residents throughout Livingston County eagerly awaited Thursday’s thunderstorm to quench our thirsty conditions. We really, really needed a good rain, and a storm with thunder and lightning to release the soil’s nitrogen would have been a huge bonus. But the anticipation turned to devastation for at least one popular local farm as the temperature dropped and the much-needed storm rained down large-sized hail that destroyed its crops.
At around 4:30 p.m. Thursday, the thunderstorm starting rolling through Livingston County. Soon after, people began sharing reports of the unprecedented summer hail, with some of it quite large. At my house in the City of Howell, the hail was small but noticeable, while a friend reported golf-ball size hail noisily falling at her house in Pinckney.
The hail fell fast and hard, claiming a number of victims, one of which was Bentley Lake Farms.
Located at 4626 Bentley Lake Road, just west of Pinckney Road and about halfway between Howell and Pinckney, Bentley Lake Farms saw its entire fields wiped out by the large-sized hail that battered the area.
In a social media post, Bentley Lake Farms called the hail a “natural disaster” that also hit several other farms in the vicinity.
“Our farm, along with a few other surrounding farms, unfortunately suffered a natural disaster this evening that maybe a lot of you have not even heard about because it was just a small pocket that our farm unfortunately was the center of,” the farm’s post read.
“Our entire fields have been completely wiped out, and we will have to start rebuilding tomorrow. We had hoped for rain because we desperately needed it, and (we were) doing a happy dance when it started to pour … but then the hail came and it was an immediate feeling of happiness to devastation.”
“Farming is a gamble, and we understand that, but we never could have expected this to happen. This has never happened in our farming career and (we) have only heard of things like this. “
Bentley Lake Farms, which has always sold its produce at a market just minutes from its fields at 2160 Pinckney Road, opened its farm for U-Pick strawberries just last week. The farm’s inaugural U-Pick is now “officially over for the season.”
“We look forward to opening it back up for the 2024 season, and continuing to grow and improve,” the post read.
As hard as the hail was on crops and plants, the Michigan State Police reported that the hailstorm also caused significant damage to one of its vehicles in the Howell area.
(Photos from Michigan State Police)
You can see how fast the hail hit the area and how large it was in this video of it falling at a home in the area of Bentley Lake Farms:
VIDEO courtesy of Suzi Palarchio Klepinger
“I thank you in advance for your continued support and prayers,” the Bentley Lake post read. “I want to emphasize our farmer friends who are also impacted by this (and) will also need all of (your) support.”
You can follow Bentley Lake Farms on Facebook by clicking here.
