Fruit, vegetable growers in NWA try to recover from season-ending hailstorm
“We lost everything basically in 10 minutes.” — Les Dozier
By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
June 9, 2025
Fast facts:
- Hailstorm affects about 30 acres of fruit/vegetable farmland
- Some growers lost whole season in minutes
(1,521 words)
(Newsrooms: with art)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Just before noon on May 18, Sta-n-Step Blue Berry Farm at Tontitown posted Facebook photos of healthy blueberry bushes heavy with fruit.
“The season is getting close! We’re thinking blueberries may be ready for picking on Memorial Day Weekend,” the post said.
Eight hours later, the farm’s Facebook page had drastically different images: A yard covered in white hail the size of marbles. Once-lush blueberry foliage lay shredded on the ground, with a few green tatters still attached to the branches.
Not a berry remained.
“It was a season-ender for me,” said Sta-n-Step’s owner Les Dozier.
Sta-n-Step, along with other fruit and vegetable growers in northwest Arkansas, saw a full-season’s expectations lost in minutes to a barrage of hail and high winds. The warned storm, which struck Springdale and surrounding areas, carried gusts up to 70 miles per hour and hail up to 2 inches in diameter. Images posted on social media showed so much hail; it appeared the area was blanketed by snowfall.
“We’ve got about 3.5 acres that has blueberries, an acre of blackberries and then about a half-acre of raspberries,” Dozier said.
Dozier said the farm “normally produced around 1,200 gallons of blueberries and 600 to 800 gallons of blackberries. I told my wife we probably will not even be able to find one gallon.
“It destroyed them all,” he said. “We lost everything basically in 10 minutes.”
Counting his investment in mulch, pest and disease control products, and his own labor so far this season, “I’m already out 15 grand,” Dozier said.
The hail “was fast, sometimes large, and was coming in at a pretty low angle versus from straight overhead due to straight line winds,” said Colin Massey, Washington County extension agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
As part of his extension work, Massey made the rounds checking on local growers and helping rebuild where he could and providing guidance to mitigate damage. The hail damaged approximately 30 acres of fruit and vegetable growth among the farms he visited.
“I can only imagine how defeating it can feel to have your season's work get dropped in a matter of minutes,” he said. “Worst hit were berry farms in Tontitown and Goshen.”
The hail couldn’t have come at a worse time for fruit growers.
“Blueberries were set to be picked the weekend following the Sunday storm,” Massey said. “The majority of berries were knocked off, defoliated, and the stems and branches were wounded by hail.
“Blueberries in these locations are done for this year,” he said. “The plants can recover but this will likely require an additional treatment to try and prevent fungal pathogens from entering open wounds, especially with wet and humid conditions.”
Managing for recovery
Damage to blackberry plants was serious.
“It looked like someone took a shotgun to the plants,” Dozier said. “The primocanes were more fragile than the floricanes. Some of the primocanes were 5 to 6 feet high and they took so many hits, some of them just kind of collapsed.”
Massey said that in addition to the defoliation and bruising or destruction of fruit, he saw “wounding on the canes.”
Most blackberries and raspberries have a two-year growth cycle. First-year stems are called primocanes. The following year, they become floricanes, which bear flowers and fruit before dying back.
“Especially hard hit were the new primocanes that were already 5 to 6 feet tall,” Massey said. “These canes were shredded at the tops leaving a lot of open surface area. These will need to be pruned so they have a clean cut and a fungicide application would be wise to prevent infection.”
Amanda McWhirt, extension specialist-horticulture crops for the Division of Agriculture, said growers “will need to keep the plants healthy with irrigation, fertility and pest management,” adding that surviving plants will likely require less fertilizer since they have no fruit.
However, there is some hope for blackberry growers.
“This year's fruiting floricanes can produce new shoots that could try and compensate for some of the upper plant loss,” Massey said. “So, there is a chance they get some berries later in the season, but it won't be a huge flush.”
The blackberries were showing their toughness after Dozier worked on the plants for a couple of weeks.
“I’ve got new growth, from 2- to 10 inches high right now and that will save next year’s crop,” he said.
Other crops
Massey said one Springdale area orchard saw moderate leaf damage to grape vines and apple trees, but he didn’t see much damage to developing apples.
“As far as other specialty crops, it ended one grower's strawberry season early and damaged some summer vegetable starts like tomato, peppers, and cucurbits, with one farm having its peppers and tomatoes wiped out,” Massey said. “Onions were damaged and torn but some may have been far enough along to limp through and get some harvest, and possibly the same scenario on some potatoes.”
Massey said the destruction “certainly is a major setback for both those U-pick berry growers as their season is pretty much done, not to mention having enough for farmer's market sales.”
“Another challenge would be for growers who have Community Supported Agriculture subscription boxes. People have paid up front for, say, a 12-week subscription of vegetables,” he said. “This damage could limit the diversity of vegetables they can provide each week, and it could delay crops they would normally be adding to summer CSA's if things like tomatoes, peppers, and cucurbits are having to be replanted.”
The cucurbit family includes cucumbers, watermelons, squash and pumpkins.
“I think most people who participate in a CSA are going to be understanding of this, and the growers are very good about weekly communication with their clientele,” Massey said. “They may have to make some adjustments on the timeframe.”
Dozier’s clients were more than understanding. His farm’s Facebook page had more than 120 comments from customers who expressed sorrow over the losses. One went a step further, “I would love to send the money I would have spent picking blueberries on your farm. It’s just a small way some of us could help.”
Dozier said the farm isn’t his family’s sole income. He and his wife, both retired from other jobs, still have a pension. The family declined the client’s offer to help raise money. “We are fine. God just has a different plan for our summer!”
Food system fragility and the role of small growers
“This storm was a hard hit for many local growers and clearly highlights the vulnerabilities of specialty crop production, but it also underscores the strength of community, and the importance of Farm Bill supports like crop insurance and infrastructure investment,” said Amanda Philyaw Perez, associate professor and food systems and safety extension specialist with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Perez noted that small farms, even those operated part-time or alongside other income streams, are essential to the resilience of local food systems. “Farms that diversify their income, or operate as a secondary profession, may be able to weather short-term losses,” she said. “But they’re also critical in sustaining local markets and food access, especially in times of broader disruption.”
She emphasized that the next Farm Bill is an opportunity to strengthen support for these growers through more accessible crop insurance, disaster relief, and investments in on-farm infrastructure.
“Investing in diversified, community-based food systems enhances long-term food security,” Perez said. “These farms keep food closer to home, maintain soil and land stewardship, and provide stability when national supply chains falter due to extreme weather or other shocks.”
“The community response shows how relationships built around local food go beyond transactions,” she added. “These growers are embedded in the fabric of their communities. But even strong communities need better tools to bounce back, and that means making sure small and specialty growers aren’t left behind when policy decisions are made.”
Crop insurance
Dozier had crop insurance, but not all those affected did. His Farm Service Agency representative already surveyed the crop damage. During Farm Bill hearings in 2022, growers called for stronger safety nets for specialty crop growers like Dozier.
Crops weren’t his only losses though. Hail broke windows in his barn, damaged roofs and downed a dozen trees, including one on a fence.
“It was a big disaster,” he said.
Farmers helping farmers
Massey said that in his rounds, he saw “farmers who were not hit — though they barely dodged tornadoes the day after — come out and help folks that were.”
“I spent half the day Thursday after the storms at Sunny Acres Farms helping rebuild about four planting beds, and getting some fresh pepper starts into the field,” he said. “I learned of the opportunity from another specialty crop grower and part of his crew that I work with who had volunteered to go help clean up and rebuild the damaged beds at their neighbor's farm.
“There is solidarity in that and especially among the growers, sharing resources, sharing time and labor, and being a community,” Massey said.
See the storm report from the Tulsa, Oklahoma, office of the National Weather Service.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media contact: Mary Hightower
mhightower@uada.edu