BrownfieldAgNews reports:
Resources are available for farmers who experience livestock loss due to the flooding situation in the Upper Midwest.
Matt Russell, state executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency in Iowa, says the floodwaters have impacted thousands of acres of cropland. He says livestock producers have also been impacted. “We are hearing of some livestock loss, cattle that have been presumably swept away in the flooding.”
He tells Brownfield producers need to document their losses before contacting their county FSA office. “The first thing is you’re immediately responding to the disaster in front of you, but as you’re doing that, if you can kind of in the back of your mind take some pictures, take some mental notes, because ultimately what we’re going to want is some records and some information.”
Russell says livestock loss data and information doesn’t immediately need to be reported. “You can be attending to the crisis at hand.”
He says producers who have experienced loss can utilize disaster programs like the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP).
According to USDA-FSA, LIP provides benefits to livestock owners and some contract growers for livestock deaths exceeding normal mortality from eligible adverse weather events, certain predation losses and reduced sales prices due to injury from an eligible loss. Indemnity payments are made at a rate of 75% of the prior year’s average fair market value of the livestock.
