UPDATE: USDA’s NRCS New Mexico Adds Union County to Area Eligible for Disaster Assistance Offered for Agricultural Producers Impacted by Invasive Noxious Weed and Locoweed.

Severe contrasts between wet weather last fall and drier conditions this year have resulted in an invasive amount of noxious weed and locoweed. This has placed a strain and hardship on the ranchers of the area, with some reporting losses on cattle and horses. Harding County issued an Emergency Declaration on April 13th. Union County issued an Emergency Declaration on April 30^th.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in New Mexico has extended the sign-up deadline to May 8^th for producers in Harding County and Union County for disaster assistance funding through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to provide technical and financial assistance to agricultural landowners and producers recovering from invasive, noxious weeds and locoweed.

NRCS New Mexico will utilize "Act Now" to process applications more quickly. "Act Now" allows NRCS to pre-approve ranked applications when the ranking score meets or exceeds an established threshold. Applications will be batched and processed in the order received.

To apply, contact the Roy field office at 411 Chicosa St., Roy, NM 87743, (575) 485-2294 Ext. 3 or the Clayton field office at 20 N 2nd St, Clayton, NM 88415, (575) 374-9461 Ext. 3.

More Information

Additional USDA disaster assistance information can be found on farmers.gov, including USDA resources specifically for producers impacted by adverse weather events. Those resources include the Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool, Disaster-at-a-Glance fact sheet, Loan Assistance Tool, and Natural Disasters and Crop Insurance fact sheet.

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