Emergency Livestock Relief Program

ELRP provides direct financial assistance to livestock producers for losses incurred because of qualifying drought or wildfire in calendar year 2021. Phase 1 provided assistance to eligible livestock producers who faced increased supplemental feed costs resulting from forage losses. Phase 2 will provide additional assistance to Phase 1 producers for eligible losses to winter grazing impacted by the continued severe drought and wildfire in 2021. ELRP was authorized by the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act (Pub. L. 117-43). ELRP Phase 1 provided payments to eligible livestock producers using data already submitted to FSA on 2021 Livestock Disaster Program (LFP) Application, CCC-853. Although payments made under LFP do not have a direct correlation to the increased feed costs incurred, to deliver this assistance quickly, FSA used certain LFP data and issued an ELRP payment as a percentage of the gross payment calculated through LFP as a proxy for these increased supplemental feed costs to eliminate the requirement for producers to resubmit information for ELRP Phase 1. No action was required for eligible producers to receive ELRP Phase 1 payments. The ELRP Phase 1 payment was equal to the eligible livestock producer’s gross 2021 LFP-calculated payment multiplied by the applicable ELRP payment percentage of 90 percent for underserved farmers and ranchers and 75 percent for all other producers. Phase 2 payments will use the ELRP Phase 1 as proxy and issue an additional 20 percent to represent the additional eligible loss to winter grazing resulting from the severe drought and wildfires during the grazing period in 2021.