U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence visited Iowa last Thursday and one Greene County farmer explained the devastation that last Monday’s derecho storm caused.

Iowa Soybean Association President and Rippey-area farmer Tim Bardole was joined by Governor Kim Reynolds and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and spoke about the scope that the storm had on the agriculture industry.

“It’s just something almost apocalyptic. I told him it kind of felt like another nail in the coffin in agriculture. It’s tough where everybody is already struggling financially, (crop) prices aren’t very good, and then to have this happen is kind of like a gut punch. It’s just hard to see a way out.”

Bardole talked about another concern for the younger farmers, which his son is one of them.

“On that I told him it is imperative to have a program for these young farmers to make sure that they can stay on the farm and keep working on the farm. Because in 20 years if we lose this generation it will really be devastating to the ag industry.”

Following his 20 minute conversation with Pence, Bardole believes it was productive and he left feeling that it made an impression on Pence to do something at the federal level. He adds, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency – which sets the crop insurance rates – estimated $15 billion of liability expenses that occurred from the storm across the Midwest region. Bardole says it was RMA’s largest one-day event in its history for crop damage. To hear more from Bardole and his visit with Pence, listen to today’s Community State Bank in Paton Let’s Talk Greene County program.