“Foul weather prompts disaster declaration for Carbon County farmers” – The Billings Gazette Dec 3, 2019

An astute reader forwarded us the following article compliments of The Billings Gazette By ROB ROGERS. rr*****@*************te.com on Dec 3, 2019.

“A hard frost and two early season snowstorms in Carbon County have wrecked portions of the sugar beet crop in the region, prompting county commissioners there to issue a disaster declaration.

The declaration will allow the farmers to seek federal aid.

Commissioners were approached by the Southern Montana Sugar Beet Growers Association, which reported that its farmers had lost 18% of their crop and saw a drop of three tons per acre in yield. Among the crop already harvested, farmers figured their beets had lost 1% of their sugar content.

“Frost really was the killer,” said Tom Kohley, disaster and emergency services director for Carbon County.

Along with the damaged crop, the association anticipates that payments to farmers will be 58.5% of what was projected at planting, Kohley said. That likely will result in a significant economic impact to Carbon County farmers and the sugar beet association.

That, in large part, is what prompted the disaster declaration, which allows sugar beet farmers to become eligible for disaster relief funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus.

“This is the first declaration of this type I’ve seen come across the commissioners’ desk,” Kohley said.

It’s not a typical disaster, but it was a weather event that did real damage to sugar beets in the region, he said. That will have a serious impact, he added”.