Blaine County included in USDA disaster area designation

From U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it has designated 13 Montana counties as disaster areas due to drought, with agricultural producers in other contiguous counties including Blaine County also eligible for assistance.

The natural disaster designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency to extend emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans.

The application deadline is Jan. 3, 2022.

Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation or the refinance of certain debts. FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, available online at http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu, these counties suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of 1) D2 Drought-Severe for eight or more consecutive weeks or 2) D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional.

Carter, Dawson, Phillips, Roosevelt, Valley, Custer, Fallon, Prairie, Sheridan, Wibaux, Daniels, McCone and Richland counties were declared primary disaster area counties and Blaine, Garfield, Powder River, Fergus, Petroleum and Rosebud counties were declared eligible contiguous counties.