Livestock producers who suffered feed losses from floods or wildfires in 2023 or 2024 will be able to apply for $1 billion in USDA disaster aid to help offset higher feed costs.
USDA on Sept. 12 announced the new payment assistance will become available to livestock producers under the Emergency Livestock Relief Program for 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire (ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW).
This is a separate payment program from the ELRP 2024 Drought and Wildfire program, which USDA rolled out in late May.
Sign-up for the ELRP 2024 and 2024 FW began Sept. 15 and will run until Oct. 31, USDA stated.
“This announcement builds on the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) and the historic levels of assistance we have rolled out over the last few months, once again proving that this administration is working as quickly as possible to get help out the door and into the hands of livestock and dairy producers,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “USDA will continue to put farmers first and ensure they have the relief they need to weather storms and build for the future.”
Qualifying areas
Not everywhere will automatically qualify for the aid.
Under the program, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) has determined the counties that qualify for the ELRP in 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire aid. California, Texas and most states on the eastern seaboard qualify for aid due to floods. Some counties in Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Wyoming and Texas, as well as one county in New York, qualify due to wildfire losses.
A large swath of the Midwest and Great Plains shows no eligible counties on the FSA map. Still, livestock producers in those counties can apply for assistance, but must provide some supporting documentation to demonstrate that a qualifying flood or wildfire occurred. Producers will have to show they had livestock physically located in that county or would have been there had it not been for the disaster event, USDA stated. FSA county committees will determine if the disaster event meets program requirements.
For most qualifications, USDA is using covered livestock criteria similar to the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), which includes weaned beef cattle, dairy cattle, beefalo, buffalo, bison, alpacas, deer, elk, emus, equine, goats, llamas, ostriches, reindeer and sheep.
Payment details
Under the program, producers can receive up to 60% of one month of calculated feed costs for a qualifying wildfire or three months for a qualifying flood. The monthly feed calculation is the same as the LFP.
The 2023 and 2024 payments have a combined limit of $125,000 for each program year. Also, producers who have already received the maximum payment for the ELRP in 2023 and 2024 for drought and wildfire will not be eligible to receive an additional payment under the ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW. Producers can submit a waiver form, FSA-510, to be considered for doubling the payment limit to $250,000.
Since May, USDA has paid out just over $1 billion to more than 348,000 livestock producers under the ELRP for disaster losses in 2023 and 2024.
The Supplemental Disaster Relief Program, which primarily provides disaster relief for crop losses in 2023 and 2024, has also paid out nearly $5.2 billion to just under 345,000 producers. — Chris Clayton, DTN ag policy editor
