Storms that struck parts of Kansas earlier this month have damaged irrigation systems and miles of fencing, separated herds of cattle and finished off thousands of acres of wheat that already were damaged by an Easter weekend freeze.

Officials estimate the late freeze caused $500 million of crop damage in Kansas. It could take several months before they release estimates of the agricultural damage caused by the recent round of tornadoes and flooding.

“I figure that on my farm, the wheat losses amount to about 2 million loaves of bread,” said David Cross, president of the Kansas Livestock Association, who lives in the south-central Kansas town of Lewis, about 20 miles south of Greensburg, which was wiped out of by a tornado.

The Livestock Marketing Association has raised $15,000 to buy post and wire and distributed the fencing materials to farmers and ranchers in Macksville.

“That sounds like a lot of money, but it doesn’t go that far,” Cross said. “So we decided to raise some more money.”

He said the Kansas Livestock Association matched a $5,000 gift from the Texas cattle feeders organization, which had leftover Hurricane Katrina donations. Fencing companies also offered to donate their services, and a northwest Kansas FFA chapter will be arriving June 1 to help farmers rebuild fences.

With fencing down, cattle were able to wander. Cross said volunteers had started the job of trying to sort through more than 1,500 head of escaped cattle try to return them to their owners.

Meanwhile, many farmers are seeking to replace their storm-damaged wheat crop with fall-harvested crops such as soybean and milo. But some are having trouble finding seed.

“The most desirable hybrids are either nonexistent or in short supply because of demand,” said Tom Maxwell, an agricultural extension agent in Salina.

Gerald Karber, a farmer and seed dealer in the Gypsum area, said seed companies produce enough seed to meet demand from the year before.

“When that’s gone, it’s gone,” he said. “This freeze was in Texas and Oklahoma, too.”

Maxwell said some farmers were hoping to salvage the wheat crop.

“A lot of guys are taking their chance with wheat and will collect whatever indemnity they can on crop insurance,” he said.

A federal disaster declaration covers Kiowa, Pratt, Edwards and Stafford counties, and more counties could be added later. But the declaration won’t help with crop and livestock losses.

Farmers will not get federal aid unless Congress passes an agricultural disaster aid package and appropriates the money for it.

A disaster aid package that has won House approval would provide help for farmers who sustained losses from 2005 through Feb. 28.

“The next step is to try to get that date extended to cover April and May,” said Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. “I remain optimistic that this will be passed and signed.”

Although damaging, the recent storms combined with winter storms to end a drought in the state. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius announced Tuesday that she was lifting a drought warning for Barber, Harper and Sumner counties and rescinding a drought watch that had been in effect for 60 other counties.