Rain benefits area farmers

Staff writer

[email protected]

Area farmers are all smiles after the weekend rain.

According to AccuWeather, Clovis and Portales received less than an inch of rain over the weekend, but some area farmers are saying they’ve seen 2 to 4 on their properties over the last two weeks.

“I’m on top of the world,” said Pat Woods, a farmer three miles northwest of Broadview. “The good Lord sent us this moisture and now it’s our job to make good use of it.”link Rae Arnett: Staff photo

Vehicles traveling on Main Avenue splash through on Monday after Sunday’s storm. Sunday’s storm produced 0.33 inches of rain according to Accuweather.com. Some say they’ve seen 2 to 4 inches on their properties in the last two weeks.

Roosevelt County farmer Rick Ledbetter said his crops received minimal damage from the hail but nothing lasting.

“I’m not complaining a bit,” Ledbetter said, laughing. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had rain like this, so I’m happy. When you live here, you have to have the mindset that there is always going to be some bad with the good. Sometimes, you’ll get the bad and sometimes, your neighbor will.”

Ledbetter said he had heard that Milnesand received heavier hail than the rest of the county but did not know how bad damage was for the small community.

Portales Emergency Management Director Keith Wattenbarger said 25 poles for power lines were damaged in Milnesand but he had not received reports of any other damage.

Steve Bailey, who farms in the Grady/Broadview area, agreed with Ledbetter that as an eastern New Mexico farmer, you accept that there is always the potential of damaging weather with rain.

Bailey said he had no crops planted yet, but some of his neighbors received minor damage.

However, he said, the worst case scenario for his neighbors is replanting their crops, which they have plenty of time to do.

He said farmers who replant will be set back two and a half weeks at most, which is not dire in farming.

“It’s just been four years since we experienced anything like this, but it’s good,” Bailey said. “It’s nice to see something green and it’s nice to see something grow. Things are looking up. If nothing else, things are different and for the most part, in a good way.”

The rain benefited most area farmers but one Clovis farm family did not fare so well during Saturday night’s thunderstorm.

The Campbell family, who live on a farm north of Clovis on New Mexico 209 and Curry Road 22, are temporarily staying with extended family after having their roof torn off by Saturday night’s storm.

Dean Campbell, 64, said the storm hit sometime after 8 p.m. Saturday. He said he and his family went to the center hallway of the home as it was being pelted by softball-size hail.

Campbell said the noise from the hail was deafening. Glass in windows on the west side of the home began shattering and Campbell said his family heard a loud boom as the wind peeled the entire roof from the west side of the home, scattering it several hundred yards to the south and east.

The fierce wind also picked up a large steel cattle feeder Campbell estimated weighs at least a ton and carried it several hundred yards from a field north of the farm and dropped it near his feed lot. The hail also smashed the windshield of one of his pickup trucks.

Campbell and his wife, Kathy, said two of their calves were killed by being pelted by pieces of roof debris and hail.

There are no known reports of any other severe damage in the area.

Clovis and Portales law enforcement agencies said they did not receive calls concerning damages or injuries from the weekend storms.

Wattenbarger said tornadoes were spotted 8 miles east of Dora and 25 miles northwest of Elida Friday night, but there have been no reports of severe damage in Elida or Dora.

As for the Campbells, despite their bad luck, they are also grateful for the rain.

“That’s what happens,” said Kathy Campbell. “You can’t fight Mother Nature.”

— Robin Fornoff

and Christina Calloway

contributed to

this report.