St. Joseph, Mo. ? More than 100 farmers and law enforcement officials from northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas participated in Buchanan County’s first Rural Crime Summit.

The summit was held Thursday in St. Joseph to help people protect themselves from rural crime.

Sgt. Michael Noellsch, an investigator with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said rural crimes are among the hardest to solve, and have increased in the past two years. The most common type of crime affecting rural communities is theft of livestock, equipment and metal.

The St. Joseph News-Press reports that in 2009, more than 3,000 cattle went missing from rural Missouri farms, totaling $2.25 million in losses.