Disaster loans available for local farmers

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Four Southeast Missouri counties have been designated agricultural disaster areas, the result of damaging spring rains.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture determination an-nounced this week makes qualified producers in Dunklin, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Stoddard counties eligible for low-interest emergency loans through the Farm Service Agency.

Also eligible are farmers in the contiguous counties of Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Mississippi, Scott and Wayne.

Stoddard County FSA farm loan manager Larry Cure said the disaster designation was the result of rain on and after May 4.

Producers can borrow up to 100 percent of production or physical losses, up to $500,000, Cure said. The interest rate is 3.75 percent.

Cure said producers must have suffered at least a 30-percent loss in crops, livestock, livestock products, real estate or some other types of property. They need an acceptable credit history but must be unable to get credit from a commercial source.

The application deadline is Aug. 2.