The USDA has declare all of Missouri a drought disaster area. The agency declared 17 counties primary disaster areas yesterday, making 15 contiguous counties eligible for assistance, too. Today the agency declared the other 97 counties as primary disasters. The city of St. Louis also is covered by the disaster declaration because of its contiguous nature.
Governor Nixon was touring dry northeast Missouri when he got the word of the declaration this morning. “There are going to be significant swatches of Missouri that will lose, in essence, the entirety of the corn crop. You couple that with the beans that are low, but with if there’s additional rains later in the year we might be able to salvage some sort of a crop. And then (there’s) the significant challenge that brings to the livestock community where we’re seeing more cattle sold sooner; we’re seeing water issues; we’re seeing increasing prices for hay and other feed stocks. all of these present significant challenges to the farm economy of our state,” he says.
Nixon also visited areas in northwest Missouri that were devastated by floods last year and are devastated by heat and drought this year. He planned to check on the progress of rebuilding Missouri River levees while he was there. He finished his day looking at dairy farm conditions in southwest Missouri.
The designation means farmers can seek help from the Farm Service Agency of the USDA and can seek emergency loans.
AUDIO: Nixon Interview 5:49