USDA inspects drought damage to crops

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - On the day the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) designated an additional 14 counties to the original 36 counties in Indiana as primary natural disaster areas , officials with the department inspected farms across the state.

The undersecretary for the USDA, Michael Scuse toured two farms in northern Indiana Wednesday.

“We need to talk to the farmers and get their take on just how bad the disaster is; what [the] impacts are on them [and] get some ideas from our producers about changes that we can make in programs going forward that might be able to better serve them in years like this,” Scuse said.

The season’s lack of rain combined with high heat has devastated farms like Randy Schaefer’s in Fort Wayne, Scuse said.

“A lot of the corn is just too far gone, even if we do have rain to help,” Scuse said.  “We could get three inches of rain tonight and it's too late, you cannot salvage that corn crop at all.”

Though the visit won’t help production on his farm, Schaefer said he and his fellow farmers appreciate the government’s attention to the situation.

“It’s good to know that there’s somebody from Washington [who] knows what we’re up against,” Schaefer said.  “They are willing to come out and see it first-hand.”

The USDA has seen similar sights to those on Schaefer’s property in its inspections across the region.

According to Scuse, 60 percent of the country is considered dry.  Conditions are categorized as excessively dry in 50 percent of the nation.