The federal government has declared a drought disaster in McLennan and neighboring counties, ensuring that local farmers and ranchers will be eligible for relief.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture included 213 of Texas’ 254 counties in the disaster declaration Tuesday, calling the drought one of the worst in a century.

Other counties affected include Hill, Bosque, Falls, Navarro, Bell, Limestone and Coryell.

The declaration’s immediate impact will be limited, said Mike Maedgen, McLennan County director of the U.S. Farm Service Agency.

In the short-term, farmers could get emergency loans, but Maedgen expects little demand for them.

In addition, ranchers who signed up for a federal “noninsured assistance program” could be reimbursed for hay and forage losses this summer in an amount of up to $60 per animal.

But that program relies on drought maps, not the declaration.

Row-crop farmers — those growing corn, wheat, oats and cotton — will have to wait until fall 2012 to benefit from the declaration, assuming the farmers are part of federal safety net programs.

Maedgen said it will take until then to calculate the value of the crops for the Supplemental Revenue Assistance program.

“It’s a lag program, but it makes some significant disaster payments,” he said.

Maegden said that program could pay out $2 million to local farmers, based on a similar drought disaster situation in 2008.

Maedgen said drought disaster declarations have been common in the last decade, with the most recent coming in 2009.

He said this drought is particularly severe because of the shortage of spring rains to establish crops.

Maedgen said corn is stunted, and many farmers are choosing to chop it up for silage fodder instead of harvesting it as grain. Cattle ranchers are running out of hay and forage, and their stock tanks are going dry, causing many to thin their herds.

Wheat, the second most important crop after corn, is doing better than expected.

The weather station at Waco Regional Airport has recorded 10.9 inches of rain so far this year, more than 6 inches below normal.

As of last week, McLennan and surrounding counties were suffering from an “exceptional” drought, the worst of four categories.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

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