Kentucky tornado damages
Tornadoes in December 2021 devastated parts of western Kentucky, killing 81 people in the state. A Deere & Co. dealership and a Pilgrim's Pride chicken hatchery were destroyed, while silos at Mayfield Grain Co. holding millions of bushels of corn suffered damage.
Mayfield had roofs pulled off of parts of a storage system that holds six million bushels of grain. Photos on Twitter at the time showed yellow corn visible from the tops of bins that lost their roofs.
A new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program will assist producers who are currently struggling with a lack of available grain storage as they head into the 2022 crop harvest.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the USDA will make $20 million available in cost-share assistance to help agricultural producers rebuild storage facilities damaged by devastating natural disaster events in 2021 and 2022 in Kentucky, Minnesota, South Dakota and surrounding areas.
“Over the past two years, weather events in several states caused catastrophic losses to grain storage facilities on family farms as well as a large, commercial grain elevator, leaving stored grain exposed to the elements and affecting commodity marketing options for many producers,” Secretary Vilsack said. “Congress has provided USDA with important flexibility through the Commodity Credit Corporation, which gives us the tools to be nimble as we work to support the production and marketing of agricultural commodities and quickly respond to agricultural producers’ needs.”
State-targeted relief
USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) assistance will be designated for producers affected by the December 2021 tornadoes that passed through eleven counties in Kentucky, as well as producers in Minnesota and South Dakota affected by the derechos that swept through in May 2022 and July 2022.
State impact area maps for Kentucky, Minnesota, South Dakota and surrounding areas are now available to determine locations where producers may be eligible for emergency grain storage facility assistance.
The maps depict damaged storage facility locations and counties within a 30-mile radius of these facilities where producers may be eligible for this new program.
USDA anticipates that the funds announced today will cover 75% of the eligible expenses associated with building grain storage capacity or purchasing equipment such as grain baggers for a producer’s own use or for a shared-cost arrangement among a group of producers who want to use a common facility.
