Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Tester, Bullock tour Gallatin County hail-damaged farms

Though they knew the crop damage from last week’s hailstorm was bad, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock were clearly struck Wednesday after touring miles of Gallatin County farmland.

“It’s made me sick to my stomach,” Tester said after seeing field upon field of corn and barley damaged on the ground on John Schutter’s Manhattan farm.

Bullock called the tour “eye-opening and sickening.”

Six huge grain bins stood at the edge of one of Schutter’s cornfields. Most were dented, and one was nearly crushed in half. Mangled wheel lines littered the edge of dirt roads.

“And this so close to harvest,” Tester said, as he fingered a corn tassel he’d picked up from the ground.