WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 25 counties in Kansas as primary natural disaster areas due to losses of wheat and forage crops caused by drought, excessive heat and high winds that occurred from Jan. 1, 2011, and continuing. Those counties are:
 “Assistance at this point and time is critically important for Kansas producers, especially in helping them keep their farmland healthy for the remainder of the year,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “President Obama and I realize that during this time of disaster, federal assistance will be needed until conditions improve as farmers strive to recover their losses.”
Counties include: Barber, Barton, Butler, Clark, Cowley, Comanche, Edwards, Ellis, Ford, Graham, Gray, Harper, Harvey, Hodgeman, Kingman, Lincoln, Norton, Phillips, Reno, Rice, Russell, Sedgwick, Stafford, Sumner and Trego
Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Kansas also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous: Chase, Chautauqua, Decatur, Elk, Ellsworth, Finney, Gove, Greenwood, Haskell, Kiowa, Marion, McPherson, Meade, Mitchell, Ness, Osborne, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pratt, Rooks, Rush, Saline and Smith.
Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Nebraska and Oklahoma also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous:
 Nebraska: Franklin, Furnas and Harlan
 Oklahoma: Alfalfa, Beaver, Grant, Harper, Kay, Osage and Woods
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas June 23 making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.
 USDA also has made other programs available to assist farmers and ranchers, including the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), which was approved as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; the Emergency Conservation Program; Federal Crop Insurance; and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online at disaster.fsa.usda.gov.