Producers in affected counties are encouraged to contact their local FSA office

On November 20, 2020, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue designated Big Horn and Carter counties in Montana as primary natural disaster areas due to a recent drought. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor (see http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/), these counties suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of 1) D2 Drought-Severe for 8 or more consecutive weeks or 2) D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional. 

In accordance with section 321(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, additional areas of Montana and adjacent states are named as contiguous disaster counties.These Montana counties include: Carbon, Fallon, Rosebud, Yellowstone, Custer, Powder River, and Treasure.

A Secretarial disaster designation makes farm operators in primary counties and those counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for certain assistance from the Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met.  This assistance includes FSA emergency loans.  Farmers in eligible counties have 8 months from the date of a Secretarial disaster declaration to apply for emergency loans. FSA considers each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses on the farm and the security and repayment ability of the operator.      Local FSA offices can provide affected farmers with further information.