Livestock Program meeting announced

Under the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress enacted a number of disaster assistance programs to assist livestock producers affected by severe weather conditions. These programs, which have been reauthorized in the most current 2018 Farm Bill include the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) which provides financial compensation for livestock lost due to qualifying weather related causes; Livestock Forage Program (LFP) which covers losses to grazing lands due to wildfire and drought; and the Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP) which covers a wide range of potential losses to livestock, honey bees, and farm raised fish.

In order to inform growers of programs which may be available to them to assist with the difficult winter which we have encountered to date in 2019, the WSU Adams/Lincoln Extension will hold a meeting on Friday, March 29, 2019, from 9:30 a.m. until noon. The meeting will be held in Ritzville Washington, at the Wheat Growers Building Annex, in Ritzville. Address for the WAWG is 109 E. 1st Avenue.

Representatives of the Adams, Lincoln amd Whitman County Farm Service Agency offices will be on hand to present materials on the programs available, and to answer questions in an informal setting afterward. Persons with disabilities who require accommodations to attend or participate in this meeting should contact Chris Holt at 509-659-1761 extension 2.

Ranchers who have suffered losses are reminded that the most critical step in participating in any of the livestock programs is timely notification of losses and damage as the events occur. With few exceptions, the Notice of Loss for events is required within 30 days of the later of the loss event, or when the loss becomes apparent. If you have any questions or need to file notice of loss for one or more losses to either livestock stored forage, or for losses associated with additional feed requirements, please contact the FSA office where your livestock were located at the time of the loss. If in doubt, you may also call any office for this initial action, and you will be directed to the appropriate location.