USDA Designates Counties As Disaster Areas
The USDA has designated five Montana counties as primary natural disaster areas and 12 contiguous counties, including 10 Montana counties, are also eligible for assistance because of drought.
The five primary counties are Roosevelt, Valley, Garfield, McCone and Phillips.
Contiguous Montana counties also eligible are Blaine, Custer, Daniels, Dawson, Fergus, Petroleum, Prairie, Richland, Rosebud and Sheridan. Contiguous North Dakota counties are McKenzie and Williams.
Application deadline is June 20, 2024.
This secretarial natural disaster designation allows the USDA FSA to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans.
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 to refinance 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, 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.
