800 326 9054The Agriculture Department announced Friday it has issued disaster relief payments for losses producers faced in 2023 and 2024 due to drought, flooding and wildfire.
A USDA press release says the agency has issued more than $1.89 billion through the Emergency Livestock Relief Program.
The program is separated into two sub-programs — ELRP Drought and Wildfire, which goes to producers that see drought- and wildfire-related grazing losses, and ELRP Flood and Wildfire, which aims to help cover increased feed costs from floods or wildfires on non-federal land. Both programs have a combined payment limit of $125,000 for each program year, according to a press release.
The agency issued a second round of payments through the Drought and Wildfire program. According to the press release, these are equal to 8.2% of eligible producers’ gross calculated payments for 2023 or 2024. Total assistance will add up to more than $1.289 billion, according to the release. Producers had previously received an initial payment factored by 35% “to ensure payments did not exceed available funding,” it said.
For Flood and Wildfire, the agency is providing $604 million in total and is covering all of producers’ calculated payments in a single lump sum.
“Due to the program demand for drought and wildfire assistance, initial payments were factored to ensure total program payments did not exceed available funding,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in the release. “Additional funds remain so we are delivering on our Farmers First commitment to livestock producers and issuing a second payment in addition to making a full payment, with no factor, to eligible producers who applied for flood and wildfire recovery assistance.”
For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.
*Sourced from Agri-Pulse.