Using Ag Data to Prove Crop Damage in Court

By: Todd Janzen

Farmers are given many reasons to collect ag data about their farming practices, but using that data in court is rarely one of them. However, at a recent trial about crop damage, we proved just how useful ag data can be to help a court understand complex multi-year, multi-field farming operations.

Our case involved a lake dam that had been mismanaged by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR). About a dozen years ago, the DNR established trigger levels for when to open and close the dam, but these trigger levels raised the summer lake level significantly. This was a big problem, as farm field drainage tile in the area was designed for the previously established, lower (and correct) lake level. Raising the lake level made this field tile ineffective. Fields would flood when they could not drain after significant rainfall events, leaving standing water for days.