Applications for emergency farm loans for losses caused by drought that occurred on June 1, 2008, and continuing are being accepted at the Farm Service Agency office in Hamilton County, said D. Dale Vann Sr., farm loan manager.

Lampasas is one of 12 Texas counties recently named by Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer eligible for loans to cover part of actual production losses resulting from the damages caused by drought.

Vann said farmers may be eligible for loans of up to 100 percent of their actual losses or the operating loan needed to continue the agriculture business, whichever is less.

For farmers unable to obtain credit from private commercial lenders, the interest rate is 3.75 percent.

"As a general rule, a farmer must have suffered at least a 30 percent loss in production to be eligible for an FSA emergency loan," said Vann.

Farmers participating in the Federal Crop Insurance program will have to figure in proceeds from those programs in determining their losses.

"Applications for loans under this emergency designation will be accepted until July 27, 2009, but farmers should apply as soon as possible," Vann said. Delays in applying could create backlogs in processing and possibly over into the new farming season.

The FSA office in Hamilton is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.