In the 2008 Farm Law, Livestock Disaster Assistance was a part of measure, but it was not fully funded. So the program lapsed in the last year of the 2008 authorization, that meant there had to be some catching up in the 2014 Farm Bill and that was accomplished by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma. He saw to it that the Livestock Disaster Assistance was reinstated and reauthorizated and it was retroactive to pick up the year's that were lost from the 2008 Farm Bill. He also made Livestock Disaster Assistance permanent.
The new administrator for the Farm Service Agency is Val Dolcini said it's time for livestock producers to get in and get their name on the list to quality for livestock disaster assistance and it's important producers get in between now and next Tuesday, September 30th.
"Cattle ranchers all across the United States know we have had several years of significant drought, certain parts of the country have suffered from wild fires, still others have suffered from blizzards and other natural disasters," Dolcini said. "We opened up the LFP program on the 15th of April. It was the first Farm Bill program to roll out from the Farm Service Agency and since then we have approved over 250 - thousand LFP applications nationwide."
Radio Oklahoma Network Farm News Director Ron Hays featured Dolcini on the LFP program. You can listen to the feature by Clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
LFP payments are capped at 60 percent of the feed cost, so these programs are not designed to make anyone whole. They are critical to help producers catch up a little bit after these years of losses going back to 2011. If you have suffered livestock, forage or feed grazing losses in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, the livestock forage disaster program may offer help. Ranchers that have not contacted FSA by the 30th of September, the Budget Control Act of 2011 requires USDA to reduce payments by 7.3 percent beginning October first, the start of the new federal fiscal year.
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