| BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Farmers in Montana, Wyoming and South
Dakota are expected to suffer record crop losses this year because of a
drought that again gripped the states' grain belts.
In Montana, projected losses could total $280 million for insured crops
this year, with wheat accounting for about $200 million of the total,
David Nickless, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Risk Management Agency in Billings, said Wednesday.
"This is, I guess, a classic case of why you would want to have
crop insurance," Nickless said.
In South Dakota, $190 million in losses are projected, compared with
$136 million for all insured crops in 1995, Nickless said. In Wyoming,
losses are estimated at $5.2 million, compared with the previous high of
$4.8 million in 1993.
Losses in North Dakota are projected at $291 million. That number is
higher than other states because North Dakota farmers tend to insure crops
of higher value, Nickless said. Wheat is expected to account for about
half of this year's losses there, he said.
Drought hit north-central Montana especially hard this year. Some areas
are in their third or fourth year of extensive drought.
Larry Barbie, who farms near Inverness, said he can't remember the last
soaking rain in the region. Rain that fell the end of July didn't help his
spring wheat crop and "just raised the weeds."
Barbie, vice president of the Montana Grain Growers Association, said
he harvested just a fraction of what he'd get in a decent year.
He hoped farmers could get help from a federal disaster relief program,
which agricultural leaders are urging members of Montana's congressional
delegation to support.
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KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) - Despite a sharply reduced harvest after
irrigation was cut to protect endangered fish, potato growers in the
Klamath Basin still hope to produce enough to meet contractual
obligations.
Kerry Locke, an Oregon State University Klamath County Extension agent,
said 5,600 acres of potatoes were planted in the drought-stricken basin
this year, down from 15,000 acres last year.
Growers had to drill wells, buy water and lease lands outside the
Klamath Reclamation Project, where irrigation was curtailed.
"Many growers were trying to save contracts or they wouldn't have
even planted," Locke said.
John Cross, general manager of Newell Potato Co-op Inc., said only
about half a dozen of the cooperative's 19 grower-members grew potatoes
this year.
Marshall Staunton, a farmer and member of co-op Cal-Ore Produce Inc.,
said he, his brothers and father struggled to maintain production to help
the co-op serve its longtime customers and to retain good workers.
"We have a lot of good families that work on our farms," he
said. "We don't want to lose those high-caliber workers." |