LAKEWOOD- Eligible ranchers and livestock producers can begin applying for benefits through the Livestock Indemnity Program provided in the 2008 Farm Bill today, July 13.
"This program will provide livestock producers with a vital safety net to help them overcome the damaging financial impact of natural disasters," said Gary Wall, Acting Executive Director for USDA Farm Service Agency in Colorado.
The Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) provides assistance to producers for livestock deaths that result from disaster. LIP compensates livestock owners and contract growers for livestock death losses in excess of normal mortality due to adverse weather, including losses due to hurricanes, floods, blizzards, disease, wildfires, extreme heat and extreme cold. Eligible losses must have occurred on or after January 1, 2008, and before October 1, 2011.
The following table provides the final dates to file a notice of loss and/or application for payment for either 2008 or 2009 livestock losses.
Specific provisions for the other supplemental agricultural disaster assistance programs authorized by the 2008 Act – the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-Raised Fish (ELAP) and the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) – will be implemented through separate rulemakings and announced at a later date.
For more information on available supplemental disaster assistance programs, please visit your FSA county office at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, 711 Walsen Avenue, in Walsenburg, 738-1171 or go to http://www.fsa.usda.gov.
