Drought continues to hurt area farmers

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - The drought continues to hit farmers across the area and there isn't any sign of relief in the near future.

Take a walk through pretty much any corn crop across the area and the short, bare, dried out stalks spell disaster.

"It's bad. Things are dry and we're continuing to worsen than to get better," Professor of Agriculture at Purdue, George Patrick said.

"Corn, it's almost really past any chance to really try and help save any of it," Tippecanoe County farmer, Kevin Underwood said.

As the drought continues to etch its way deeper into the history books, farmers, not only in Indiana, but across the entire country continue to feel the pain.

"I've been here at Purdue for 40 years and this is the worst I've ever seen," Patrick said.

But while the majority of the crops is a total loss, options for farmers haven't dried out.

"They do have a variety of different types of crop insurance that are available. Some are just based on physical production. Others reflect on what the revenue is per acre," Patrick said.

"If we opt to buy a lower percentage we're not covered nearly as well if we do have the catastrophic yield situation like we have this year but we're going to have a lower premium cost," Underwood said.

But while it will take months to figure the true costs of the intensifying drought, one thing is clear. There's going to be plenty of pain to go around.

Meanwhile, the federal government has declared a natural disaster in 64 Indiana counties.

Those include Clinton, Fountain, Montgomery, Tippecanoe and White Counties.

All 64 counties qualify for low-interest relief loans from the federal government.

Congress is expected to take up legislation next week to revive several expired disaster assistance programs.

The legislation slated to reach the House floor as early as Wednesday would also extend for one year the five-year farm and food act that is set to expire at the end of September.

"They're waiting to see how bad this crop really is. We've got some weeks yet before we're really going to be able to tell how severe the corn crop is but in particular how severe the drop in soybean yields are going to be," Associate Director of the Center for Commercial Agriculture at Purdue, Michael Langemeier said.

It is still unclear what the counties in this area will be eligible for through the federal disaster relief.