Applications are now open for the Emergency Livestock Relief Program for Flood and Wildfire, which is meant to help farmers and ranchers cover part of extra feed costs associated with these types of natural disasters. American Farm Bureau economist Danny Munch says the application for this relief differs from a previous USDA program.

"Unlike the drought version that was announced earlier this year and paid automatically off of livestock forage program payments, this one requires a direct application from farmers to FSA," Munch said. "Payments are going to be based off of USDA standard monthly feed costs, and that'll be 60% of three months of feed for flooding, or 60% of one month of feed for wildfires."

Munch says about $940 million is available for the program.

"This is the remaining balance back from Congress's $2 billion livestock directive from the American Relief Act of 2025," Munch said. "If estimated demands that USDA receives exceeds available funds, USDA is going to apply a national payment factor at the end of the calculations. So those final payments might be lower than the base calculation. There are payment limits of $125,000 per program year, or $250,000 if more than 75% of your adjusted gross income is from farming."

To streamline program delivery, FSA has compiled a list of approved counties with qualifying floods and wildfires in 2023 and 2024. For losses in these counties, livestock producers are not required to submit supporting documentation for floods or wildfires.

For losses in counties not listed as approved, livestock producers can apply for assistance but must provide supporting documentation to demonstrate that a qualifying flood or wildfire occurred in the county where the livestock were physically located or would have been physically located if not for the disaster event. FSA county committees will determine if the disaster event meets program requirements.

Acceptable documentation includes:

  • Photographs documenting impact to livestock, land, or property
  • Insurance documentation
  • Emergency declaration reports
  • News articles
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration storm event database records
  • Other FSA disaster program participation records
  • Other documentation determined acceptable by the FSA county committee

If farmers or ranchers think they are eligible, Munch says they should reach out to their local FSA office to learn more by October 31 of this year.

"This is a little different than a lot of the previous programs that have automatically sent applications. You have to file this one to FSA. Applicants must provide livestock inventory as of the disaster date, and if your county is not a pre-approved list, [you must provide] photos, insurance or local declarations that prove you faced that disaster," Munch said. "There's also more information from your local FSA office or farmers.gov to provide a little bit more information. Payments are expected to go out sometime in early 2026 once USDA can estimate demand and pick a final proration amount for those calculations."

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