WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency reminds producers — including Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania farmers impacted by drought — that the deadline to apply for financial assistance through the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-raised Fish Program (ELAP) and the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) is Jan. 30 for losses that occurred in 2024.
ELAP provides emergency relief to eligible producers of livestock and honeybees to assist with losses due to disease, adverse weather or other conditions such as wildfires that are not covered by other FSA disaster assistance programs. LFP provides compensation to eligible livestock producers who suffered grazing losses for covered livestock and who are also producers of grazed forage crop acreage of native and improved pastureland with permanent vegetative cover or acreage planted specifically for grazing. Grazing losses must occur on land physically located in a county experiencing a qualifying drought during the normal grazing period for the county.
Drought
To participate in LFP, producers must own, cash or share lease, or contract grow eligible livestock, provide pasture or grazing land to eligible livestock on the beginning date of the qualifying drought, certify that they suffered a grazing loss due to drought and submit an acreage report to the Farm Service Agency for all grazing land for which a grazing loss is being claimed.
ELAP provides eligible producers with compensation for above-normal costs of hauling water and feed to livestock as well as transporting livestock to other grazing acres.
For ELAP, producers are required to complete a notice of loss and a payment application to their local FSA office for 2024 calendar year losses. ELAP also assists commercial apiarists who experience a loss of feed due to drought conditions that may need to purchase short-term feed to sustain the honeybees until additional natural feedstock becomes available. Producers interested in applying for ELAP assistance for calendar year 2024 should contact FSA at their nearest USDA Service Center by the Jan. 30 deadline. To find a service center visit farmers.gov/service-locator.
Dairy H5N1 eligibility
In July of last year, the USDA also introduced ELAP eligibility for dairy farmers who incur losses due to reduced milk production when cattle are removed from commercial milking in dairy herds owing to positive H5N1 tests.
For dairy producers, eligible adult dairy cattle under this new H5N1 provision of ELAP must be maintained for commercial milk production and be currently lactating. Assistance is available for up to 120 days after the sample collection date for the positive H5N1 test.
Producers applying for assistance under this provision, if their 120-day impact period starts in 2024 and extends into 2025, will need to submit a notice of loss and application for payment by Jan. 30 for the days impacted in 2024 and then submit a notice of loss and application for payment for the remainder of the 120 days that occur in 2025. Producers must submit two payment applications based on the applicable calendar year losses.