Following an official natural disaster designation by the Secretary of Agriculture, the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is stepping in to offer emergency loans to help folks steady their ground. This isn’t a run-of-the-mill bank program; it is designed specifically for producers who have weathered the worst of this dry spell and need to rebuild.
These funds can be used directly to replace lost livestock or essential equipment, restructure an operation so it can survive another hard year, or refinance burdensome farm debt. Every application will be weighed with an eye toward the actual losses suffered on the ground, the security available, and a realistic path to repayment.
The primary relief is targeted directly at producers in Oklahoma’s Atoka, Coal, Johnston, Le Flore, Marshall, Osage, Sequoyah, and Washington counties. But drought doesn’t stop at county borders, and neither does the assistance. Neighboring producers across adjacent border counties are also eligible to apply:
- In Arkansas, aid extends to Crawford, Polk, Scott, and Sebastian counties.
- Across the northern line into Kansas, help is open to Chautauqua, Cowley, and Montgomery counties.
- Over the Red River in Texas, producers in Grayson County can apply.
- And across the rest of Oklahoma, neighboring counties are covered—including Adair, Bryan, Carter, Cherokee, Choctaw, Haskell, Hughes, Kay, Latimer, Love, McCurtain, Murray, Muskogee, Noble, Nowata, Pawnee, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Pushmataha, Rogers, and Tulsa.
Producers have time to put their recovery plans together—the application window is open through June 21, 2027.
If you are wondering what step to take next, you don’t have to figure it out alone. You can head over to farmers.gov to explore self-guided options using the Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool or the Loan Assistance Tool. For a direct conversation, reach out to your local USDA Service Center to file a Notice of Loss and sit down with someone who can help you put these resources to work on your land.
More Resources On farmers.gov, the Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool, Disaster Assistance-at-a-Glance fact sheet, and Loan Assistance Tool can help you determine program or loan options. To file a Notice of Loss or to ask questions about available programs, contact your local USDA Service Center
