The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 15 counties in Nebraska as primary natural disaster areas due to flooding that began May 1, 2011, and continues.
“This action provides help to hundreds of producers who suffered significant losses to corn, soybeans, dry beans, sugar beets, wheat, and forage crops, as well as serious damage to farm structures,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The counties are: Boyd, Dixon, Otoe, Burt, Douglas, Richardson, Cass, Knox, Sarpy, Cedar, Lincoln, Thurston, Dakota, Nemaha and Washington.
Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Nebraska also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous: Antelope, Hayes, McPherson, Cuming, Holt, Pawnee, Custer, Johnson, Perkins, Dawson, Keith, Pierce, Dodge, Keya Paha, Rock, Frontier, Lancaster, Saunders, Gage, Logan and Wayne. The announcement was made Monday, July 18.
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas July 18, 2011, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided all eligibility requirements are met.
Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses.
FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability.
