AP News, June 7th, 2007
Kentucky farmer Don Halcomb's hopes for a good wheat harvest were snuffed out by a spring freeze that ruined nearly half his crop.
Now Halcomb and other farmers can seek low-interest emergency loans to help offset crop losses from early April when temperatures plunged into the upper teens to low 20s.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture notified Kentucky officials Wednesday that farmers across the state can apply for the assistance. The USDA determined that 118 of the state's 120 counties suffered enough production losses to warrant a disaster declaration by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns; the other two counties are eligible as adjacent counties.
State officials estimate that the freeze inflicted more than $80 million in crop losses statewide, hitting winter wheat, peach, apple and grape crops the hardest.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the assistance will help affected farmers "pay their essential farm and living expenses." Farmers interested in applying for the assistance should contact their local Farm Service Agency office, according to McConnell's office.
The cold spell that hit Kentucky from April 5 to April 10 followed a stretch of unseasonably warm weather that accelerated the growth of many crops.
The freeze caused estimated losses of about $63 million to the wheat crop and $19 million to fruit crops, said Bill Clary, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
Farmers are just starting to harvest what's left of the state's wheat crop.
Sixty-eight percent of the statewide winter wheat crop was rated poor or very poor, according to the latest weekly report by the National Agricultural Statistics Service's Kentucky field office. Another 28 percent of the wheat was considered fair and 4 percent good.
The agriculture reporting service forecasts that 190,000 of the 420,000 acres of wheat planted last fall will be harvested. The average yield is forecast at 38 bushels an acre. Last year, Kentucky farmers harvested 320,000 acres with an average yield of 71 bushels an acre. Cash receipts from the 2005 wheat crop totaled $66 million.
Halcomb, who farms in Logan and Simpson counties in southern Kentucky, said his 1,000-acre wheat crop looked promising until the late freeze ruined 400 acres of it. He replanted the land with soybeans, and expects the existing wheat crop's yield to be halved.
It's been part of a frustrating growing season for Halcomb and other producers.
"We've got the best prices in my life for the products we produce, and so far I've had the worst production," he said by telephone. "If you don't have anything to sell, it's hard to cash in."
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SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) _ Two hundred lines of dry beans from Central and South America will establish their roots in western Nebraska this summer as scientists study their resistance to disease and other qualities.
The varieties, from countries like Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, will be studied by scientists at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center.
Dr. Carlos Urrea, dry bean breeder for the university, will oversee the study, which will examine, among other things, the lines' resistance to bacterial wilt, a costly problem for bean producers.
The 200 samples, and seven elite Nebraska lines, also will be scrutinized for bean common mosaic virus and common bacterial blight during their summer in two state-of-the-art greenhouses.
Urrea also will oversee seed increase and advancing generations projects. He said he is working on new hybrid combinations using the best Nebraska lines and beans from other states and nations.
