PHOTO GALLERY: Farmers use hail machine to emulate effects of a hailstorm

George Swaney, chair person of Missouri State Committee, right, aims ice chunks at a wheat crop June 4 at the Bradford Research & Extension Center. While Swaney aims the ice, Jeff Harbert, far left, adjuster of Farmers Mutual of Iowa, and Mike Kroha, middle right, employee of the Bradford Research & Extension Center, push ice into the homemade hail machine. The hail machine is being used to emulate the effects of a hail storm.
  |  Yi Gan

Benton Nayloy, left, employee of the Bradford Research & Extension Center, and Mike Kroha, right, employee of Great American, talk after conducting the hailstorm experiment on June 4 at the Bradford Research & Extension Center. They are looking at the way hail damages crops.
  |  Yi Gan

The heads of a ripening wheat crop still remain after the hailstorm experiment on June 4 at the Bradford Research & Extension Center. The goal was not to devastate the crop, but to return eight days later on June 12 and observe the damage.
  |  Yi Gan

Gene Painter, Claim Supervisor of American Farm Bureau Insurance, displays wheat stalks that have been damaged by voles.   |  Yi Gan