FSA announces an emergency loan designation for farms in Vernon County

Nevada Daily Mail

Tim Kelley, executive director of the Farm Service Agency, has announced that he'd like to remind area residents that, as of Jan. 10, five counties in Missouri, including Vernon County, have FSA disaster loans available due to drought conditions that began in January 2006. Vernon County applications for assistance for physical and production losses caused by this disaster will be accepted at the Vernon County FSA Office, 102 W. Allison, Nevada. Applications will be accepted through Sept. 10.

Loans for physical losses must be used to replace or repair damage to buildings, fences or to compensate the farmer for losses of basic livestock, stored crops or supplies on hand and equipment lost due to the disaster. Loans for production losses may also be used to buy feed, seed, fertilizer, livestock or to make payments on real estate or chattel debts. Generally, loans for production losses cannot be approved until crops have completed their production cycle or have been harvested.

In order to qualify, a farmer must have suffered a 30-percent loss in production or an actual physical loss that was essential to the successful operation of the farm.

Loans for actual losses are made at an interest rate of 3.75 percent for emergency loans to those eligible applicants who are unable to obtain the actual credit needed from another source.