Ag Policy Blog

Livestock producers have until Nov. 21 to enroll in the Emergency Livestock Relief Program for 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire (ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW). The programs have already paid out more than $1 billion to more than 348,000 applicants.

Coming out of the federal shutdown, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) on Friday announced that the deadline for livestock producers to apply for assistance through the Emergency Livestock Relief Program for 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire (ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW) is being extended through next week.

The programs have already paid out more than $1 billion to more than 348,000 applications due to losses in 2023 and 2024.

Livestock producers who have not enrolled in the program now have until Nov. 21, 2025, for that to happen.

The program provides aid to producers whose livelihoods were adversely impacted by disrupted feed availability and poor forage conditions following catastrophic floods and wildfires in 2023 and 2024.

"We recognize, while FSA Service Centers were temporarily closed due to the government shutdown, livestock and dairy producers may not have had an opportunity to submit their applications for flood and wildfire recovery assistance," said FSA Administrator Bill Beam.

"As directed by Secretary Rollins, FSA county offices are now open and staffed five days a week to provide much needed economic support through essential safety-net and disaster assistance programs like the Emergency Livestock Relief Program. We are fully committed to ensuring farmers and ranchers once again have access to core FSA services and programs," Beam said.?

According to USDA, the ELRP had paid out $705 million to 221,428 applicants for 2023 losses. The top states for aid were Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.

For 2024 losses, USDA has paid out $338.4 million to 126,739 applicants. Oklahoma, Missouri, Montana, Texas and Wyoming are the top states for aid recipients.

To streamline program delivery, FSA determined eligible counties with qualifying floods and wildfires in 2023 and 2024. For losses in these counties, livestock producers are not required to submit supporting documentation for floods or wildfire. A list of approved counties is available at www.fsa.usda.gov/elrp.

For losses in other counties, livestock producers may still be eligible for ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW but must provide supporting documentation to demonstrate that a qualifying flood or wildfire occurred in the county where the livestock were physically located or would have been physically located if not for the disaster event. FSA county committees will determine if the disaster event meets program requirements.

Acceptable documentation includes:

-- Photographs documenting impact to livestock, land, or property

-- Insurance documentation

-- Emergency declaration reports

-- News articles

-- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration storm event database records

-- Other FSA disaster program participation records

-- Other documentation determined acceptable by the FSA county committee

Livestock and Producer Eligibility:

For ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW, FSA is using covered livestock eligibility similar to the criteria for Livestock Forage Program which includes weaned beef cattle, dairy cattle, beefalo, buffalo, bison, alpacas, deer, elk, emus, equine, goats, llamas, ostriches, reindeer and sheep.

Wildfire assistance is available on non-federally managed land to participants who did not receive assistance through FSA's Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) and ELRP 2023 and 2024 for drought and wildfire.

Livestock producers can receive assistance for one or both years (2023 and 2024) and for multiple qualifying disaster events, if applicable. However, producers cannot exceed three months of assistance per producer, physical location county, and program year.

Visit your local USDA Service Center for more details.

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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