Hoeven: USDA Releases Second Round of Livestock Disaster Assistance for Losses From Flooding & Wildfire

Hoeven: USDA Releases Second Round of Livestock Disaster Assistance for Losses From Flooding & Wildfire

Brings Total Livestock Disaster Assistance to $2 Billion

BISMARCK, N.D. - Senator John Hoeven today announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is providing livestock producers with an expected $1 billion in disaster relief to help offset increased supplemental feed costs as a result of qualifying wildfires or floods in 2023 and 2024. This is second round of livestock assistance, bringing the total livestock set-aside to $2 billion. Livestock producers can begin signing up on Monday September 15, and have until October 31 to apply.

The Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) funding comes as part of the $21 billion in weather-related assistance that Hoeven worked to include in the year-end legislation passed by Congress in December.

"This second round of livestock assistance targets wildfire and flood losses and will bring the total to $2 billion in emergency assistance to help livestock producers recover from natural disasters in 2023 and 2024," said Hoeven. "We appreciate Secretary Rollins for working with us to get this much-needed assistance out to our producers. This funding is part of the $34 billion in disaster aid we worked to secure at the end of year to help our producers who are facing some challenging conditions."

Specifics of this round of livestock assistance include:

• Producers in counties determined by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to have qualifying floods and wildfires in 2023 and 2024 are not required to submit supporting documentation for floods and wildfires. The list of approved counties is available atfsa.usda.gov/elrp.
• Producers in counties not listed can apply, but must provide supporting documentation to demonstrate that a qualifying wildfire or flood in 2023 or 2024.
• Wildfire assistance is available to participants who did not receive assistance through Livestock Forage Program (LFP) or the ELRP 2023 and 2024 for drought and wildfire program delivered to producers in July of this year.

Additional information is available here.

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