The extent to which soybean hail insurance providers may or may not be overcompensating policyholders for losses attributable to hail injury

To measure the extent of recovery, field trials were planted in typical commercial dryland planting conditions. Three cultivars were planted, two indeterminate and one determinate, and hail was artificially simulated via branch cuƫngs at three different damage levels.

Every third branch (33%), every second (50%), and two of every three branches (67%) were removed to simulate defoliation, stem damage, and pod/flower damage at two different growth stages, one vegetative growth stage (V6) and one reproductive growth stage (R2). Structured field trials were conducted to determine whether there is a measurable difference between determinate and indeterminate cultivars and their ability to recover from hail damage.