USDA Designates Natural Disaster Areas

A secretarial natural disaster designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency 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.

Impacted areas were North Dakota and Montana. Drought began on May 12, 2026.

Application Deadline is April 13, 2027.

Primary counties eligible in North Dakota: Golden Valley and McKenzie.

Contiguous counties also eligible: North Dakota: Billings, Dunn, Mountrail, Slope and Williams; Montana: Fallon, Richland, Roosevelt and Wibaux.