Drought hitting Indiana farmers

AURORA, Ind. - Marshall Alford has been farming in Dearborn County almost all of his life.

He says a drought like this summer's is rare.

"If we get rain we might get half a crop, but it still won't pay the bills," Alford said.

Agriculture experts say this year's drought is the worst in Indiana since 1988.

"When you have a bad year you make sure you don't buy anything you don't need and go from there, and hope next year is better," Alford said.

Alford says it can take five good years to make up for a bad one like this year.

Mike Hornbach is the Purdue University Director for Dearborn County. He says lower amounts of precipitation in the winter have made this summer's drought worse.

"Most of the rains we have had are real spotty, you can drive around the county and state and you may see a few fields that look fairly decent just because they had some timely rain, and some as close as a half a mile away just look completely awful," said Hornbach.

Horbach says 75 percent of Indiana farmers have some amount of crop insurance.

Still, it does not cover all of the loss from a bad year, and 25 percent of the state's farmers have no coverage.