USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director Arthur Tripp recently visited with members of the South Georgia Black Cattlemen’s Association.
“Our visit with the South Georgia Black Cattlemen’s Association was critical in our effort to inform cattle producers across Georgia of FSA’s various programs and loans available to assist them in their recovery from drought and other natural disaster events,” Tripp said.
The Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) provides payments to eligible livestock producers and contract growers who also produce forage crops for grazing and suffered losses due to a qualifying drought during the normal grazing period for the county.
To date, seven Georgia counties have met the drought severity levels that trigger LFP eligibility for the 2022 program year, but Putnam and its neighboring counties are currently not among them.
Another USDA disaster assistance program available to cattle producers is the Livestock Indemnity Program, which 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 an injury from an eligible loss.
USDA recently increased LIP payment rates for beef, beefalo, bison, and dairy animals less than 250 pounds to be more reflective of the substantial increased cost of these non-adult livestock in 2022.
Also, the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) provides eligible producers with compensation for certain feed losses not covered by LFP. ELAP also covers abovenormal costs associated with hauling water to livestock and transporting feed to livestock.
“Many people don’t realize the many ways that we can help them,” Tripp said. “It is vitally important that we have these conversations with producers so that we can work together to ensure that agriculture remains Georgia’s No. 1 industry.”
– Contributed