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Northern lawmakers ask FSA to help farmers in drought

Two U.S. Senators in the Northern Plains are asking the USDA’s Farm Service Agency to quickly allow emergency haying and grazing in the expanding drought.

In a letter, John Thune from South Dakota and Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota say producers are concerned certain Conservation Reserve Program acres eligible for emergency haying and grazing will not get access quick enough and forage shortages are possible.

The updated U.S. Drought Monitor says dry conditions worsened in the Midwest in the last week. In eastern Minnesota, extreme drought is starting to show in a few counties with 18% of the state in severe drought. South Dakota had a slight improvement in drought conditions in the last week with more than 8% of the state in severe drought.

The FSA does not allow emergency haying and grazing until the primary nesting season is over and for both states, the nesting season ends August 1. Read the letter.