Natural Disaster Declared in Noble and Surrounding Counties

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared a natural disaster as a result of the ongoing drought in Noble and twenty-one surrounding counties in Ohio. The department is allowing the Farm Service Agency to extend ‘emergency loans’ to farm operators in these 22 counties as well as bordering counties.
According to the FSA website, The Emergency loan program is triggered when a natural disaster is designated by the Secretary of Agriculture. These loans help producers who suffer qualifying farm related losses directly caused by the disaster in a county designated as a primary disaster. To be eligible, farmers must have at least a 30% loss in crop production, livestock or products from livestock, real estate, or chattel property, an acceptable credit history, are unable to receive credit from commercial sources, can provide collateral, and have repayment ability.
The site also states that borrowers must keep acceptable records, operate a farm plan they develop and agree with local FSA staff, and may be required to attend financial management training in addition to crop insurance.
The current interest rate on the loans is 3.75 percent and the deadline for applications is April of next year.
In addition to the USDA loans, the Small Business Administration has announced Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available in Ohio for small businesses, agricultural co-ops, and most private nonprofit organizations with losses due to the drought.
According to their website, the loans can be up to $2 million and interest rates at four percent for small business and 3.25 percent for non profits.

The U.S. Drought Monitor releases a map every Thursday on its website. The map depicts Noble County at being 85% in the D4 category, or exceptional drought, the most severe condition, and 15% in D3, or extreme drought during, the last reporting week (ending September 3rd.) The week ending on August 28 showed Noble at zero percent D4.
The Drought Monitor’s latest National Drought Summary reported that areas along the Ohio River saw temperatures upwards of six degrees above normal as dry conditions continued to intensify and moderate drought conditions expanded into western Pennsylvania. The report stated that West Virginia did not see any reprieve from the one or two inches of precipitation during that week. Athens and Meigs counties entered into the exceptional drought category for the first time in the Drought Monitor’s 24 year history.
The Noble County Soil and Water Conversation District stated on its Facebook page that Wolf Run and Caldwell Lake water levels are down two to three feet and that many farmers are resorting to feeding their livestock with hay and are having to haul water. Some are even selling off their livestock. In the post, they are asking citizens to use good judgment on water usage.
On August 27, they began asking Noble County farmers for information to help them compile a list in their office to help them apply for non-debt relief payments through the Emergency Assistance for Livestock and Livestock Forage Disaster Programs. More information can be had by calling 740-732-4318 and by reading the Soil Summary this week on Page 3.
People can submit their own drought observations on the Drought Impacts toolkit online at droughtimpacts.unl.edu, which will become part of the permanent record and be available for display on an interactive map. Authors of the Drought Monitor do not rely solely on user reports to determine changes in drought status in regions across the country but reports are used to decide where attention may be required for further study.