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staff," he said.
• The report cited weakening growth in farmland prices but noted "a great deal of variance" between areas that use irrigation and others that rely on rainfall. The August farmland price index growth weakened with an August reading of 52.8, its lowest level since July 2009.
• Even so, survey organizers said August marked the 31st consecutive month that farmland prices have shown positive growth.
• But an index that tracks farm equipment sales plummeted in August to 38.3, its lowest level since October 2008. The index had been at 46.1 in July.
• "The drought is putting a dent in farmland price growth and the purchase of agriculture equipment, including trucks," Goss said.
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Forecast: US drought lingering but leveling off
JIM SUHR,AP Business Writer
• ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The worst drought in the U.S. in decades may be leveling off or even be easing ever so slightly in some lucky locales, federal weather forecasters announced Thursday in a report of little comfort for farmers and ranchers who already have begun tallying this year's losses.
• While the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center calls for the drought to linger in the nation's breadbasket and parts of some mountain states at least through November, it provided a silver lining with the news that conditions aren't expected to get worse.
• Conditions may even improve in the Southwest and in a band sweeping from South Dakota through a section of Iowa and east to southern Indiana, then south to Texas. Some areas have seen rain and cooler temperatures in recent weeks, although one forecaster cautioned he doesn't expect enough extra rain to end the drought.
• Ed O'Lenic, a seasonal forecaster at the center, said his September-through-November outlook "is taking away the dry, but not necessarily making it wet." Illinois state climatologist Jim Angel, a drought expert, said he would describe the drought as "leveling off," rather than easing.
• The rain and break in 100-degree temperatures comes too late for most farmers and ranchers, who already have seen crops wither and pastures dry up. Corn farmers in some areas cut their fields weeks ago, giving the year up as a loss. Many ranchers have sold livestock because they had no grass for grazing or money to buy feed.
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