Drought
BY JOYCE BUPP
York County Correspondent
YORK By mid-week, York
County farmers heard the an
nouncement they had been
awaiting since July.
York County was officially
declared a crop disaster area,
making drought-plagued
producers eligible for federal
emergency feed and financial
assistance. Crop losses are
estimated at 70 percent, a $47
million loss in county crop
production income.
The USDA disaster program
automatically extends to adjoining
counties, making farmers in
Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin and
Lancaster counties eligible to
apply for emergency assistance.
That disaster announcement
came Tuesday, just 24 hours after
a visit to parched southern York
County by USDA assistant
secretary Wilmer D. Mizell.
During his visit to York County,
Mizell, a former Alabama
congressman, was hosted and
accompanied by 19th District
Congressman Bill Goodling, Jim
McMullen from the Washington
offices of ASCS, and a delegation of
state and local officials which
included Pennsylvania Deputy
Secretary of Agriculture Luther
Snyder.
Stops were made at three area
farms hard hit by the continuing
lack of rain along the Mason-Dixon
line. Farms visited included Wolfe
farms, an egg, potato and grain
operation run by the George Wolfe
and sons families, the Blevins
Fruit Farms, operated by the
Eugene Blevins family, and the
grain farm of Charles and David
Trout, all in the rural outskirts of
Stewartstown.
What Mizell saw on his York visit
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Plagued York County Gains Disaster Status
were undersized potatoes, peaches
too small even for processing use,
soybeans and hay fields going into
blossom with little growth and
tasseling com, in some cases less
than half the normal height, and
setting small, stunted ears. Some
com may set no ears at all.
Mizell noted that immediate
rains would help salvage some late
crops, but that there is “no hope
for harvest in some fields. And in
some areas (of the country), it’s
too far gone for help.”
Congressman Goodling, who had
been instrumental in arranging
MizelTs farm visits Monday, was
“extremely pleased with the
decision to give assistance.”
“Hopefully, this will make a dent
in the problem farmers in the area
are experiencing,” said Kevin
Melchoir, a spokesman in
Goodling’s Washington
congressional offices.
Local federal agriculture of
ficials do not anticipate an im
mediate rush of applications for
assistance since the total extent of
the crop losses will not be known
until after harvest is completed.
However, some livestock
producers are already running low
on feed grains, with reduced
harvests of early feed grain crops
and little promise of adequate corn
and bean yields.
According to Wayne Kurtz, York
ASCS head, most livestock
producers m the drought-stricken
portions of the county will
probably qualify for some
assistance. Applicants will need to
inventory feed on hand and
numbers of livestock.
Kurtz does not expect ap
plication approvals to be a lengthy,
time-consuming process, but
farmers are urged to look ahead 60
to 90 days to their needs.
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An undersized, barely-filled-out sunflower head went back to Washington with USDA
assistant secretary Wilmer Mlzell center, as an example of severe drought-related crop
problems in York County. Accompanying Mizell on his visit were 19th District
congressman Bill Goodling, right, and York County Extension Agent Tony Dobrosky.
For farmers unable to obtain
credit elsewhere, financial
assistance of up to 80 percent of
confirmed crop losses is available
at low cost interest, through the
Farmers Home Administration.
Ron Kraszewski of the York
FmHA office notes that applicants
must get certification from two
other commercial lenders that
they do not qualify for credit. Only
full-time farmers planning to
continue fanning are eligible.
New FmHA applicants will need
to establish production history on
the last five years of crop
production, which will be averaged
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and compared with 1986 yields. At
least a 30 pecent total loss on all
crops must be established for an
applicant to qualify for assistance.
York County farmers with
questions on the disaster
emergency assistance programs
may call the ASCS office at 755-
2801 and the Farmers Home Ad
ministration at 757-7635.
USDA has also granted disaster
status to much of the Southeast,
putting into action several
programs available to hard-hit
farmers through the 1985 Farm
Bill.
That includes the Feed Cost-
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Sharing Program, formerly the
Emergency Feed Program, under
which USDA shares with
producers the cost of purchasing
feed grains and hay. Cost sharing
is up to 50 percent of feed costs, up
to 5 cents per pound formerly 3
cents per pound of feedgrain
equivalent.
These cost share payments are
to be made in generic certificates,
which can be redeemed for either
cash, or for CCC commodities.
In announcing expanded
disaster-aid programs, on Aug. 1,
Secretary of Agriculture Richard
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