It could be slim pickings for cattle this winter if the feast by hungry grasshoppers continues. They have jumped on winter pasture that has sat idle during the summer and made a banquet of it.

Butte County Commissioner Steve Smeenk said Wednesday that grasshoppers will eat the equivalent of their own weight every day. And they are wreaking havoc on his hayfields.

"I've killed millions of them, and it hasn't made a dent," he said.

Because of the hopper concern, the Butte County Commission on Wednesday noted that since any agricultural losses "severely affects the entire economy," they issued a disaster proclamation in hopes that it may bring help from the Farm Service Agency and Small Business Administration for grasshopper losses dating back to the first of this year.

Winter grazing is going to be the problem, Butte and Lawrence County Farm Service Agent Keith Jensen told Butte County Commissioners.

Jensen warned of "extensive damage to grazing land, hay production areas and crop production," but it may not be enough to bring federal help to farmers and ranchers.

Lawrence County Invasive Species Management supervisor David Heck attended the commission meeting and said that 13 to 25 grasshoppers per square meter is considered a disaster; on the prairies surrounding the Northern Hills, he said, counts have run from 180 to 200 per square meter.

It takes a 50 percent loss to get federal aid loans, Jensen said.

"Now the back half of that grazing, say you could put a number on it and that they ate 50 percent of it," Jensen said. "That's only a 25 percent total loss."

"That gets to be the hard part of it."

Jensen said he plans to get the proclamation reported but said, "The problem when you start trying to figure out how much it is, you have to put a time frame on it."

He agreed there is a lot of grasshopper activity, and he plans to submit the county proclamation as part of reporting losses.

But, he said, "It doesn't necessarily mean an automatic anything for us."

"Any kind of progress toward helping the problem is good," Jensen said. "It doesn't mean anything really specifically until the governor says something."

That means the governor would have to second the proclamation and forward it to federal officials before there would be an authorization for emergency loans.

The county starts the process, Jensen said, but as with winter storm disasters, the proclamation has to move up the ladder for a federal declaration before emergency loans could be approved.

The Meade County Commission similarly passed an emergency resolution recently for grasshopper infestation. Commissioners declared the current grasshopper overpopulation has created a natural disaster within the county.

That resolution requests Gov. Mike Rounds to declare the county a disaster area.

Meade County Commissioner Gary Cammack brought the resolution to the other commissioners. He said the resolution may open doors for the area to potentially receive help from state and federal sources.

Cammack said discussion centered on how this year's damage is significant and will continue.

"It's not so much for this year as it is for next year," Cammack said.