Eligible livestock producers can sign up for disaster recovery assistance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Emergency Livestock Relief Program for 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire (ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW).

The payments will help offset increased supplemental feed costs due to a qualifying flood or wildfire in calendar years 2023 and 2024.

USDA expects the program to provide about $1 billion in recovery benefits.

Livestock producers have until Oct. 31 to apply for assistance.

“We are providing continued support for livestock producers whose livelihoods and way of life have been disrupted by catastrophic floods, wildfires and poor forage conditions in 2023 and 2024,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said. “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. USDA will continue to put farmers first and ensure they have the relief they need to weather storms and build for the future.”

Qualifying disaster events
To streamline program delivery, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has determined eligible counties with qualifying floods and qualifying wildfires in 2023 and 2024. For losses in these counties, livestock producers are not required to submit supporting documentation for floods or wildfires. A list of approved counties is available at fsa.usda.gov/elrp.

For losses in counties not listed as eligible, livestock producers can apply for ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW but must provide supporting documentation to demonstrate that a qualifying flood or qualifying 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.

Payment calculation
Eligible producers can receive up to 60% of one month of calculated feed costs for a qualifying wildfire or three months for a qualifying flood using the same monthly feed cost calculation that is used for LFP.

ELRP 2023 and 2024 for drought and wildfire and ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW have a combined payment limit of $125,000 for each program year. Producers who already received the maximum payment amount from ELRP 2023 and 2024 for drought and wildfire will not be eligible to receive an additional payment under ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW.

Eligible producers may submit form FSA-510, Request for an Exception to the $125,000 Payment Limitation for Certain Programs, to be considered for an increased payment limit of $250,000.

More information
For more information, visit FSA’s Supplemental Disaster Assistance webpage.