Farmers finally getting drought assistance

MISSION — Chuck McDonald said it’s the worst year he has had in three decades of farming.

Hurricane Dolly swamped the Monte Alto farmer’s land last year when he was already reeling from dry conditions.

Right after he recovered from Dolly, this year’s drought and high temperatures combined to devastate his cotton and grain crops.

“You never can get the right weather at the right time,” said McDonald, the chair of Hidalgo County’s Farm Service Agency committee. “You’re dealing with disaster after disaster.”

Aid to the agricultural producers hurt by last year’s hurricanes and this year’s drought has been slow to come despite the implementation of a standing disaster trust fund in the 2008 Farm Bill.

The new program —the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments Program, or SURE for short — replaces disaster relief aid that was distributed on a case-by-case basis, said Juan Garcia, the Farm Service Agency’s state director.

Aid distributed in the old manner was often unreliable, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been slow to implement the new programs the bill established.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said assistance to farmers through SURE will be available beginning in November.

Hidalgo and Webb counties have formal disaster declarations from the drought. Starr, Zapata and Jim Hogg counties have pending declarations.

“The drought didn’t start yesterday,” Cuellar said. “It’s been a while. The assistance for farmers and producers needs to happen now.”

In the Rio Grande Valley, the devastating drought has killed a fifth of the acreage, with dryland crops faring the worst.

Valley crop losses alone are estimated at $10.4 million through the end of July.

Total losses for ranchers and farmers across the state are pegged at $3.6 billion.

The crop damage in the Valley has dealt a heavy blow to farmers who were already hurting from Hurricane Dolly losses estimated at $20 million.

Tommy Guerra, who runs cattle on 5,500 acres of land near Roma, said the drought is affecting ranchers as well.

Next week is a deadline to submit applications for assistance with livestock-related losses attributed to the drought.

Guerra, one of about a dozen ag producers who met Wednesday with the state’s FSA director to get details on aid programs, said the drought has killed much of his grass — a rancher’s main resource.

“It will be 100 (degrees) again next week,” he said. “Grass can’t grow at 100 degrees.”

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.