Nebraska Governor to Seek Federal Drought Designation

Extreme drought conditions -- coupled with bleak chances for abundant rain this spring and summer -- have prompted Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns to seek a federal agricultural disaster designation Monday for 21 western counties, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

"Farmers are planting crops in dust and hoping it will rain," Johanns told the Herald. "It's shaping up to be a summer of real concern."

The U.S. Drought Monitor map indicates that roughly the western half of Nebraska is in an exceptional or severe drought.

Monday's disaster declaration covered the following counties: Arthur, Banner, Box Butte, Chase, Cheyenne, Deuel, Dundy, Frontier, Garden, Grant, Hayes, Hitchcock, Keith, Kimball, Lincoln, McPherson, Morrill, Perkins, Red Willow, Scotts Bluff and Sioux.

Money from an agricultural disaster designation cannot be used to reimburse people for private loss, but it provides farmers and ranchers with access to emergency low-interest loans and other assistance. To receive a disaster designation, counties must have at least a 30 percent loss of production in one or more crops.

The 21 counties have been in drought for so long that it is logical to believe that they will at least have pasture and range losses to meet the disaster designation threshold, the governor said.

"I know it's early in the agricultural production season and that there's an opportunity for moisture, but, unfortunately, it is becoming more obvious that this area will once again be severely impacted unless we just get a huge amount of rainfall," Johanns said.

He also said it is possible that other counties will be added to the federal list.

"In the meantime," he told the Herald, "we'll pray for rain across the state."

Source: Omaha World-Herald