A July 18 article incorrectly said that Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) did not return telephone calls seeking comment on a federal farm program. Cochran's office returned a call early in the preparation of the article but did not return a subsequent one before publication.
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No Drought Required For Federal Drought Aid
Larry Reeves, who heads the Whatcom County USDA office, echoed that view. "We do what we are told," he said. "Our thoughts and feelings generally don't have a bearing."
Terri Noteboom and her husband received nearly $13,000 in livestock funds for their dairy farm in Lynden. Noteboom also chairs the farmers committee that advises Reeves. She said some Whatcom County dairy farmers came into the office to report that they had accidentally received government checks.
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"I told them, 'No, you didn't. It wasn't an accident. It's yours,' " she said.
"The way I see it, many times they do these programs and instead of applying it to one area, they find a way to apply it to the entire country. I don't know if you call that a loophole or not."
Snow in Wisconsin
In November 2002, Ben Brancel, the top USDA official in Wisconsin, sent out a news release notifying livestock owners that none of the state's counties qualified for the Livestock Compensation Program because they had not received drought declarations from the secretary of agriculture.
Five months later, in April 2003, Brancel put out another news release: As a result of Congress broadening the eligibility criteria, 53 Wisconsin counties now qualified for that cash.
In still another news release, Brancel implored livestock owners to apply for the money. "If you own eligible livestock in eligible counties you are eligible," he wrote. "In these tough economic times, you don't want to miss the opportunity to receive money to help pay some of the bills."
Wisconsin livestock owners took Brancel up on his offer, collecting more than $39 million. Still, some dairy farmers and county officials were confused about why they were getting the money.
"In this county, we got a lot of questions from producers: 'Why are we eligible?' " recalled Tom Schneider, the head of the USDA office in Manitowoc County, where livestock owners got $1.5 million. "Our answer was 'Because we were told you were eligible.' "
Several Wisconsin counties qualified on the basis of a two-year-old disaster declaration for a January 2001 snowstorm. "It was a nasty winter storm," recalled Teresa Zimmer, the USDA official in Green County. Asked how the storm affected ranchers, she said, "There were several days where livestock owners couldn't get to the market . . . to sell their animals."
Ranchers in Green County collected nearly $1.5 million. One of those who got a payment was Cornell Kasbergen, who helps run family dairy farms in Green County and Tulare County, Calif. Family members received a total of $72,000 in livestock funds, records show.
"It was a program that was available that we took advantage of," Kasbergen said. "Did we have any losses? I couldn't tell you. In my mind, I think a lot of these programs are a waste of money."
Researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.
