| BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Wyoming is expected to set a record for crop
losses, while losses in Montana will be dramatic but less than earlier
projected, a federal agriculture official said Thursday.
Losses in Montana for all insured crops are expected to hit about $150
million. That would make 2001 the second worst year for losses paid out
since 1948, with the figure roughly double last year's losses, said David
Nickless, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk
Management Agency in Billings.
Nickless, whose office oversees federal crop insurance programs in
Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota, said officials
overestimated the severity of the losses when they pegged Montana's figure
as high as $280 million earlier this fall.
"It's not as bad as we thought, but it's not much consolation for
the producers out there who are really hurting," he said.
His office still projects record losses in South Dakota and Wyoming.
The $205 million paid out in 1985 remains the worst year ever in
Montana. Last year, losses hit about $76 million, Nickless said.
North-central Montana - noted for its grain production - was hit
especially hard, he said. Wheat has accounted for much of the losses
already reported to Nickless' office.
Farmer Lochiel Edwards sounded almost apologetic explaining that he'd
cut his wheat fields near Big Sandy at just a fraction of what he'd
normally harvest - while some neighbors didn't even cut many of their
acres.
While crop insurance helps, he said it doesn't provide much relief to
him or other farmers who have endured several dry years in north-central
Montana.
"I'm not down on this," he said. "It's been a problem
for me and my neighbors to predict where the money's going to come from to
pay our bills."
Richard Owen, executive vice president of the Montana Grain Growers
Association, said bankers have been calling some producers to discuss next
year's financial outlook.
"In those areas that have been hit by multiple years of drought,
it's pretty bad," he said.
While drought has taken a toll in Montana and parts of Wyoming, excess
moisture has hindered planting or has created disease potential in parts
of North Dakota, Nickless said.
Nickless said the latest projections for crop-loss payments include:
-$155 million for South Dakota, compared with the $136 million for all
insured crops in 1995.
-about $6 million for Wyoming, compared with $4.8 million in 1993
-$280 million for North Dakota, compared with $447 million in 1999. |