BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A weekend hail and wind storm caused major damage to hay and grain crops along the Milk River from Hinsdale to Nashua, the National Weather Service said.

"I've not been in one like this before," said Verlin Koenig, who has been the agricultural extension agent for Valley County in Glasgow for the past 27 years. "We've just started adding up the cost."

The storm hit Saturday afternoon and dropped about 2.5 inches of precipitation on farmers' fields.

The Weather Service reported that thousands of acres of fields were destroyed. Much of the crop along the Milk River is alfalfa, but there also is some wheat and corn.

Fields treated with chemical fallow were hit so hard that "no stubble was left standing," Koenig said.

Roubie Younkin, in the Glasgow extension office, said her alfalfa had been waist-high and ready to cut. She said her husband inspected the field to find that it "was pounded into the ground with stubble about 4 inches high."

"Our neighbor's wheat is gone," she said.

Montana Disaster and Emergency Services said in a news release Monday that it has provided a field representative to help Valley County in its assessment and is working with Musselshell County to determine the extent of its damages, as well. The results will help to determine whether the areas are eligible for state or federal assistance, the release said.

Meanwhile, damage assessments were just getting started Monday for another storm that swept through several south-central Montana counties late Saturday and early Sunday.

The hail storm in the Big Timber area was "really varied," extension agent Marc King said.

"At Springdale, the hail was about (the size of) a dime," he said. "It hit quick and did not last. At my place, it was golf ball and lasted about 10 minutes. At Greycliff, nothing."

The storm hit mostly north of the Yellowstone River, where it put the alfalfa hay crop on the ground, King said.

"We'll need a three- or four-day window to dry out and start swathing it," he said.

King said his triticale, a high-protein hybrid of wheat and rye used for livestock feed, was "smashed." He hoped to swath the crop for hay.

"It may recover, re-grow and re-head," he said.

On the eastern edge of that storm in Rosebud and Treasure counties, Byron Hould said some corn crops were "hammered, taking at least 3 inches off the stalks."

Grain that was headed was "30 to 40 percent broken off."

Damage to sugar beets was scattered, but Hould said one farmer reported having replanted beets three times already.

"Even the thistles were beaten to the ground," Hould said.