DELEGATION ANNOUNCES DISASTER ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE TO PRODUCERS WHO LOST LIVESTOCK
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad and Congressman Earl Pomeroy announced today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has begun accepting applications from producers seeking federal assistance for livestock lost to flooding and other disasters in 2008 and 2009.
The Livestock Indemnity Program will allow producers to recover 75 percent of the market value of the lost animals. The delegation said the program will be helpful to producers in North Dakota, where nearly 100,000 head of livestock were lost due to flooding and blizzard conditions this spring.
The delegation worked to include the Livestock Indemnity Program as part of the disaster program in the Farm Bill, which passed last summer. This spring, when flooding and blizzard conditions ravaged much of the state during the middle of calving season, the delegation wrote to USDA Secretary Vilsack, urging the Department to expedite implementation of the Livestock Indemnity Program. Additionally, the delegation pushed to have USDA provide assistance in a manner that fully recognizes the true value of a newborn calf. This resulted in a payment rate of $319 for calves lost in 2009 – a significant increase over payment rates for calves lost under previous ad hoc disaster programs.
“Our producers suffered significant losses due to flooding and other disaster events in the last year,” the delegation said in a joint statement. “This program won’t make them whole, but it will give them a helping hand to get their operations back on their feet.”
This Livestock Indemnity Program is the first available component of the disaster program included in the Farm Bill, which passed last summer. The Livestock Forage Program is expected to launch in September, with the crop disaster program, known as the Supplemental Revenue Assistance program (SURE Assistance), to be announced late in the year.
Producers who wish to apply for assistance through the Livestock Indemnity Program should contact their local Farm Service Agency office.
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