USDA Announces Livestock Payments for Drought and Wildfire

WASHINGTON, DC – On Sunday, USDA announced that ranchers with approved applications through the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) for forage losses due to severe drought or wildfire in 2021 will soon begin receiving emergency relief payments for increases in supplemental feed costs in 2021 through the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) new Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP).

For impacted ranchers, USDA will leverage LFP data to deliver immediate relief for increases in supplemental feed costs in 2021, by providing up to 60 percent of the estimated replacement feed cost when an eligible drought adversely impacts grazing lands or 50 percent of the monthly feed cost for the number of days the producer is prohibited from grazing the managed rangeland because of a qualifying wildfire.

Already, FSA received more than 100,000 applications totaling nearly $670 million in payments to livestock producers under LFP for the 2021 program year.

In addition, the ELRP payment percentage will be 90 percent for historically underserved producers, including beginning, limited resource, and veteran farmers and ranchers, and 75 percent for all other producers, with the payments subject to payment limitation rules.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)