The Colorado State Fair will host a benefit concert next month to help farmers who were buried by blizzards in the southeastern part of the state and suffered major cattle and agricultural losses.

Operation Blizzard Benefit will take place March 18 at the Colorado State Fair Events Center in Pueblo, the Colorado Farm Bureau has announced. Headlining the beneift concert will be country music performer Michael Martin Murphey.

Blizzard Benefit organizers plan to give some of the money garnered from the concert directly to the livestock farmers and ranchers who were devastated in the counties declared as emergency disaster areas.

Organizers also plan to use some of the money to create a permanent agricultural disaster fund for the state to assist farmers and ranchers in case of future natural disasters, the bureau said.

Ths show is being put together by the bureau, the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, the Colorado Department of Agriculture and the Colorado Livestock Association.

Other performers include Waddie Mitchell, Baxter Black, Gary McMahan and Don Edwards.

Tickets for Operation Blizzard Benefit currently are on sale, and can be purchased at the Colorado State Fair, Ticketmaster outlets or by phone, 303-830-TIXS.

More information can be found at www.blizzardbenefit.org.