By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter

Additional assistance is on the way for U.S. farmers and ranchers who suffered losses in 2023 and 2024 due to natural disasters like wildfires and drought.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will open Stage 2 of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program Monday, Nov. 24.

“Stage 2 will cover crop, tree, bush, vine and quality losses that were not covered under the earlier announced stage one,” Stephen Vaden, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, said. “The purpose of Stage 2 is to cover so-called shallow losses, which include non-indemnified losses, uncovered losses and quality losses between the two stages of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program.”

SDRP covers revenue, quality or production losses due to wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, tornadoes, winter storms, freezes, smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought and related conditions that occurred in calendar years 2023 and/or 2024.

“This program will cover uninsured losses, and for the first time in USDA disaster assistance, shallow losses,” Richard Fordyce, USDA undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation, said. “If a producer suffered a loss that did not exceed their crop insurance deductible, they will not be indemnified for their loss and receive the same crop insurance premium and fee refund as producers did in SDRP one.”

Fordyce said that fixes a “clear gap” in previous disaster assistance programs.

“There will be no progressive factoring,” Fordyce said. “Hurricanes, derechos and wildfires do not bias producers based on their race or ethnicity, so the assistance provided by USDA should not either.”

The quality loss component of SDRP will cover the decrease in value based on discounts due to the physical condition of the crop, as well as the decline in nutritional value of the forage crops.

Farmers and ranchers may sign up for SDRP stages 1 and 2 at FSA offices until April 30, 2026.

Up to $16 billion in Congressionally-approved assistance is available.

USDA notes about $5.7 billion has been distributed through SDRP Stage 1.

Stage 2 program details are available at fsa.usda.gov/sdrp.

Signup also begins Monday for USDA’s Milk Loss and On-Farm Stored Commodity Loss programs.

“The milk loss program provides relief to producers who were forced to dump milk or remove it from the commercial market due to adverse weather while the on-farm stored commodity loss program covers losses of eligible commodities in storage,” Fordyce said.

The Milk Loss Program provides up to $1.65 million in payments to eligible dairy operations who were not compensated for their losses.

Up to $5 million is available through the On-Farm Stored Commodity Loss Program.

The deadline to enroll in those programs is Jan. 23, 2026.

Additional details on the Milk Loss Program are available at fsa.usda.gov/mlp.

Details on the commodity loss program are available at fsa.usda.gov/ofsclp.

USDA officials were asked about aid for 2025 on a press call Monday, but as the government shutdown just ended, they were unable to provide details about if, and when, additional aid will be available.

“Rest assured, the undersecretary and his team are very busy crunching those numbers now, and we’ll let you know when we have an announcement, but we would’ve had an announcement much earlier if we’d ben open over the past 45 days,” Vaden said.