The hailstorm that swept through the Flathead Valley on Wednesday heavily damaged many wheat and barley fields in the Creston and Lower Valley areas.

The hail in those areas measured as big as 1.5 inches in diameter — roughly golf-ball size — and dented vehicles, broke windows in campers and shattered a basement window in one Creston home, farmers said.

“We took a pretty good beating,” said Tryg Koch of Heritage Custom Farming in Creston. “It was the largest hail we’ve ever seen.”

Koch was still waiting for a crop adjuster to arrive on Friday, but he estimated damage to 120 acres of spring wheat at close to 40 percent.

Miles Passmore of Creston said his barley crop sustained 40 to 50 percent damage, while a couple of hundred acres of spring and winter wheat sustained about 20 to 25 percent damage.

Passmore said he purchased hail insurance for the first time this year, anticipating this kind of weather event based on hot weather earlier in the season.

“It was shaping up for something like this,” he said.

CHS Agronomist Andy Lybeck was inspecting fields in the Creston area Friday afternoon and said the damage was spotty and depended somewhat on how far the grain crops had matured. Generally, the younger the grain, the less damage it sustains from hail, he said, “but right now all the fields are pretty well headed out.”

Bruce Louden said he had only 5 percent damage at his place in the west end of Lower Valley, but six miles away at the Louden “home place,” the damage was anywhere from 30 to 50 percent on the wheat and barley fields.

The Loudens farm about 300 acres in Lower Valley.

Louden said he’s never had hail insurance because it’s so expensive and weather events like Wednesday’s storm don’t happen often.

Pea fields in the area also reportedly were heavily damaged — completely flattened in some cases.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at [email protected].