Please timely report losses and damages to your local FSA office and/or your Approved Insurance Provider for crop insurance claims.
USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) offers disaster assistance and low-interest loan programs to assist you in your recovery efforts following wildfires or other qualifying natural disasters.
Available programs and loans include:
-
Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) - provides financial assistance to producers of non-insurable crops when low yields, loss of inventory, or prevented planting occur due to natural disasters including excessive wind and qualifying drought (includes native grass for grazing).
-
Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) - offers payments to eligible producers for livestock death losses in excess of normal mortality due to adverse weather.
-
Tree Assistance Program (TAP) – provides assistance to eligible orchardists and nursery tree growers for qualifying tree, shrub and vine losses due to natural disasters including excessive wind and qualifying drought.
-
Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) - provides emergency relief for losses due to feed or water shortages, disease, adverse weather, or other conditions, which are not adequately addressed by other disaster programs.
-
Emergency Loan Program – available to producers with agriculture operations located in a county under a primary or contiguous Presidential or Secretarial disaster designation. These low interest loans help producers recover from production and physical losses.
-
Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) - provides emergency funding for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate land severely damaged by natural disasters; includes fence loss.
For more information on these programs, contact your local USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov/disaster.
USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides disaster recovery assistance to farmers, ranchers, landowners and communities through a variety of USDA programs. NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to help producers recover from natural disasters like floods, hurricanes, wildfires and drought, and also assists communities with post disaster restoration projects, through conservation programs, primarily including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP). Learn more about disaster recovery assistance at www.nrcs.usda.gov/getting-assistance/disaster-recovery or visit your local NRCS office.
If you’ve suffered excessive livestock death losses and grazing or feed losses due to recent wildfires, you may be eligible for disaster assistance programs through the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA).
The Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) offers payments to you for livestock death losses in excess of normal mortality due to adverse weather and the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) provides emergency relief for losses due to feed or water shortages, disease, adverse weather, or other conditions, which are not adequately addressed by other disaster programs.
To participate in LIP, you will be required to provide verifiable documentation of death losses resulting from an eligible adverse weather event, and you must submit a notice of loss to your local FSA by the application deadline, 60 calendar days after the end of the year.
To participate in ELAP, you must submit a notice of loss to your local FSA office by the application deadline, 30 calendar days after the end of the year, and should maintain documentation and receipts.
You should record all pertinent information regarding livestock losses due to the eligible adverse weather or loss condition, including:
- Documentation of the number, kind, type, and weight range of livestock that have died, supplemented if possible by photographs or video records of ownership and losses;
- Rendering truck receipts by kind, type and weight - important to document prior to disposal;
- Beginning inventory supported by birth recordings or purchase receipts;
- Documentation from Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Department of Natural Resources, or other sources to substantiate eligible death losses due to an eligible loss condition;
- Documentation that livestock were removed from grazing pastures due to an eligible adverse weather or loss condition;
- Costs of transporting livestock feed to eligible livestock, such as receipts for equipment rental fees for hay lifts and snow removal;
- Feed purchase receipts if feed supplies or grazing pastures are destroyed;
- Number of gallons of water transported to livestock due to water shortages.
For more information on these programs and documentation requirements, contact your local USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov/disaster.
The Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) provides assistance to you for livestock deaths in excess of normal mortality caused by adverse weather (including wildfires), disease and attacks by animals reintroduced into the wild by the federal government or protected by federal law.
For disease losses, FSA county committees can accept veterinarian certifications that livestock deaths were directly related to adverse weather and unpreventable through good animal husbandry and management.
For livestock losses, you must file a notice of loss and provide the following supporting documentation to your local FSA office no later than 60 calendar days after the end of the calendar year in which the eligible loss condition occurred.
- Proof of death documentation
- Copy of grower’s contracts
- Proof of normal mortality documentation
USDA has established normal mortality rates for each type and weight range of eligible livestock, i.e. Adult Beef Cow = 1.5% and Non-Adult Beef Cattle = 5%. These established percentages reflect losses that are considered expected or typical under “normal” conditions.
In addition to filing a notice of loss, you must also submit an application for payment no later than 60 calendar days after the end of the year.
For more information about LIP, contact your local USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov.
If you’ve suffered livestock feed or grazing losses due to recent wildfires, you could be eligible for assistance through the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP).
ELAP covers physically damaged or destroyed livestock feed that was purchased, or mechanically harvested forage or feedstuffs intended for use as feed for your eligible livestock. In order to be considered eligible, harvested forage must be baled. Forage that is only cut, raked or windrowed is not eligible. You must submit a notice of loss by the application deadline, January 30 following the program year in which the loss occurred.
ELAP also covers up to 180 lost grazing days in instances when you’ve been forced to remove livestock from a grazing pasture due to wildfire.
You should maintain records and receipts documenting that livestock were removed from the grazing pasture due to wildfire, costs of transporting livestock feed to eligible livestock, receipts for equipment rental fees for hay lifts, feed purchase receipts and the number of gallons of water transported to livestock due to water shortages.
For beekeepers, ELAP covers beehive losses (the physical structure) in instances where the hive has been destroyed by a natural disaster including wildfire. For honeybee losses, you must notify FSA within 15 calendar days of when a loss occurs or from when the loss is apparent.
For more information regarding ELAP, contact your local USDA Service Center or visit fsa.usda.gov/disaster.
|
