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USDA Designates 12 Nebraska Counties as Disasters Due to Drought

This Secretarial natural disaster designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation or the refinance of certain debts. FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, these counties suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of 1) D2 Drought-Severe for eight or more consecutive weeks or 2) D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional.

Primary counties eligible:

  • Blaine
  • Dundy
  • Hayes
  • Hitchcock
  • Knox
  • Loup
  • Madison
  • Merrick
  • Nance
  • Pierce
  • Platte
  • Red Willow

Contiguous counties also eligible:

  • Antelope
  • Boone
  • Boyd
  • Brown
  • Butler
  • Cedar
  • Chase
  • Cherry
  • Colfax
  • Custer
  • Frontier
  • Furnas
  • Garfield
  • Greeley
  • Hall
  • Hamilton
  • Holt
  • Howard
  • Lincoln
  • Logan
  • Perkins
  • Polk
  • Rock
  • Stanton
  • Thomas
  • Wayne
Source : unl.edu

Trending Video

Kansas Wheat Harvest 2026 | Three John Deere S7 700 Combines in Action

Video: Kansas Wheat Harvest 2026 | Three John Deere S7 700 Combines in Action

Kansas Wheat Harvest 2026 is underway near Alden, Kansas!

In this video, I spend time with Frederick Harvesting, a custom harvesting operation based in Alden, Kansas. Back at their home farm, three new John Deere S7 700 combines equipped with John Deere HDF40 draper heads work through a drought-stricken winter wheat crop while one of the farm's John Deere 8R 370 tractors pulls a Brent 1398 grain cart.

Most of the Frederick Harvesting crew was already busy cutting wheat in southwest Kansas, but these machines remained at home to finish up local fields. Throughout the video, I explain what is happening, discuss the effects of dry conditions on the crop, and capture plenty of aerial footage showing the combines working with the grain elevator at Alden in the background.