Disaster Assistance for Farmers & Ranchers: Every Program You Need to Know

Last Updated: March 2026 | Source: USDA-FSA, NRCS, program regulations

This is a free guide, not financial or legal advice. Always verify with your local USDA office. Report an error

The Programs at a Glance

Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP)

What It Is

LIP can pay you when livestock die from eligible weather events, blizzard, hurricane, flood, tornado, lightning, extreme heat or cold, wildfire, or from attacks by federally protected predators (wolves, grizzly bears, eagles). It does not cover increased costs or infrastructure damage. Just death loss.

Who Qualifies

You had a financial interest in the livestock at the time of death, and the deaths were above your normal mortality rate. FSA won't pay for losses that would have happened regardless.

What It Pays

Up to 75% of the national average market value at time of death. For predator losses, OBBB raised that to up to 100%.

What that looks like: a mature beef cow with a market value around $1,400 would pay roughly $1,050 under the standard rate. Payment rates are set by species, weight class, and type, your FSA office has the current rate tables.

Payments are capped at $125,000 per person per year.

How to File

1. Report the loss to your local FSA office within 30 days. This is the hard deadline.
2. Bring what you have: photos of dead livestock, veterinary records, weather documentation, predator evidence. You can supplement later, but the notice of loss cannot be late.
3. Complete the full LIP application at your FSA office. They'll tell you what documentation is still needed.
4. For predator kills: get USDA Wildlife Services or your state fish and wildlife agency out to confirm the kill. Evidence degrades fast.

What Most People Get Wrong

• Waiting for complete documentation before filing. File the notice of loss first, within 30 days. You can add evidence after. You cannot file late.
• Not keeping herd inventory records. FSA needs to verify your livestock numbers. Brand inspections, vet records, and purchase/sale receipts all count. If you don't have current records, start keeping them now.
• Not calling Wildlife Services quickly enough for predator kills. In states like Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Washington, you need a confirmed kill report. Get Wildlife Services out within 24 hours if possible, carcass evidence degrades fast.

Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish (ELAP)

What It Is

ELAP can cover the livestock-related costs that LIP and LFP don't, and it's broader than most people realize. If you're hauling water during a drought, buying extra feed because your pasture burned, or moving cattle off a federal grazing allotment because of wildfire, ELAP is the program that covers those costs.

Specifically:

• Water transportation costs when normal sources fail during drought
• Feed costs above normal during drought or fire
• Grazing losses from wildfire on federally managed land
• Emergency livestock gathering costs when fire forces a move
• Livestock deaths from causes LIP doesn't cover (certain disease outbreaks tied to weather)
• Honeybee colony losses and feed costs

What It Pays

ELAP can reimburse costs above your normal baseline. If you normally spend $2,000/month on supplemental feed and you spent $6,000/month during a drought, the $4,000 difference is what's potentially covered. Same logic for water hauling, whatever you spent above what you'd normally spend.

Payments may be factored below 100% if nationwide claims exceed available funding in a given year.

How to File

1. File a notice of loss with FSA within 30 days of when the loss becomes apparent.
2. Keep a detailed log: dates, quantities, costs. Every water delivery receipt, hay purchase, trucking invoice.
3. Complete the ELAP application at your FSA office with your documentation.

What Most People Get Wrong

• Not filing for ELAP at all. This is the disaster program ranchers miss most often. Everyone knows about LIP for dead livestock. But the more common and more expensive scenario, increased costs from hauling water, buying extra feed, moving livestock early, is what ELAP covers. If you're spending more money because of a drought or fire, file for ELAP.
• Not keeping receipts during the event. You need to document the cost difference between normal operations and disaster operations. No receipts, no claim. Start a folder the day conditions turn bad and put every receipt in it.
• Not understanding the "above normal" calculation. FSA compares your costs during the disaster period to your costs in a normal period. Keep records of your normal feed and water expenses year-round so you can show the difference when it matters.

Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP)

What It Is

LFP can compensate you when drought conditions on your grazing land are severe enough to trigger the program. Unlike LIP and ELAP, you don't have to prove specific losses. It can trigger automatically based on the U.S. Drought Monitor.

How the Triggers Work

The D2 trigger was updated by OBBB. It used to require 8 consecutive weeks.

What It Pays

Up to 60% of the estimated monthly feed cost for your livestock type, multiplied by the number of months triggered. Rates are set by FSA for each species.

What that looks like: if your county hits D3 for four weeks and FSA's monthly feed cost rate for your cow herd is $30/head, you'd receive roughly $18/head/month × 4 months = $72/head.

How to File

1. Check the U.S. Drought Monitor weekly during dry conditions: droughtmonitor.unl.edu
2. When your county hits the trigger threshold, contact your FSA office and file.
3. Bring documentation of your livestock numbers and grazing acres.

One eligibility requirement: you must have risk coverage on your grazing land, either crop insurance or NAP: or pay a $250 service fee per crop. Without one of these, you're not eligible.

What Most People Get Wrong

• Not having NAP coverage on pasture/forage. LFP can trigger automatically based on drought conditions, but only if you have risk coverage in place. NAP on your forage is cheap. Get it before you need it, or you'll be locked out when your county hits D3.
• Not checking the Drought Monitor. Nobody is going to call you. Counties move in and out of drought categories week to week. The week your county hits the trigger, go file.
• Assuming someone will notify them. FSA doesn't send LFP alerts. You need to watch the Drought Monitor yourself and walk into the office when it triggers.

Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)

What It Is

ECP helps repair physical damage to farmland and infrastructure after a natural disaster, not livestock losses, but fences, waterlines, terraces, waterways, and debris.

What It Covers

• Fence repair and replacement
• Debris removal from farmland
• Grading and reshaping damaged land
• Restoring conservation structures (terraces, diversions, waterways)
• Repairing water supplies damaged by disaster

What It Pays

Up to 75% of the cost of approved restoration work. Maximum $500,000 per disaster event. Beginning and limited resource producers may qualify for higher rates.

What that looks like: if you need $40,000 in fence replacement after a wildfire, ECP would cover up to $30,000. Your share: $10,000.

How to File

1. ECP is activated county by county: FSA must authorize a sign-up period for your county.
2. When sign-up opens, apply at your local FSA office with photos and cost estimates.
3. Do not begin permanent repairs until your request is approved by the county FSA committee. Emergency fixes to prevent further damage are fine, document what you did and why.

What Most People Get Wrong

• Starting repairs before getting FSA approval. If you rebuild fences or grade land before ECP approves the work, you may lose eligibility for cost-sharing. Emergency measures are fine. Permanent repairs need approval first.
• Not knowing ECP exists. After floods and fires, most producers think about livestock programs. They forget that destroyed fencing and buried waterlines are a separate claim under ECP: and it can cover up to 75%.
• Not documenting “before” conditions. FSA compares pre-disaster and post-disaster. Photos of your infrastructure in good condition make your claim much stronger. Take baseline photos of fences, water systems, and structures during normal times.

Emergency Farm Loans

What They Are

FSA makes low-interest loans to producers in counties that have received a disaster designation, presidential, USDA Secretarial, or FSA administrator.

Loan Details

• Maximum: $500,000
• Interest rate: set at time of loan, typically below commercial rates
• Uses: replace livestock, repair buildings, restore farmland, refinance disaster-caused debt, cover essential living expenses
• Terms: 1–7 years for operating; up to 40 years for real estate

Who Qualifies

• Your county has a disaster designation
• You suffered at least a 30% loss in crop or livestock production, or a physical loss to livestock, equipment, or buildings
• You can't get sufficient credit from a commercial lender

How to Apply

1. Verify your county has a disaster designation at farmers.gov/protection-recovery
2. Apply at your local FSA office within 8 months of the disaster designation.
3. Bring financial records, documentation of losses, and evidence that commercial credit isn't available.

SDRP: Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (2023 & 2024 Crop Losses)

What It Is

SDRP is a one-time federal program authorized by the American Relief Act of 2025 that may pay producers for crop, tree, bush, vine, and hay/forage losses from qualifying natural disasters in 2023 and 2024. About $16 billion is appropriated. It runs in two stages and both close April 30, 2026. Important for ranchers: baled hay, silage, and other mechanically harvested forage crops qualify. Grazed pasture (PRF, Annual Forage) does not — those losses flow through ELRP, LFP, or ELAP. If you grow hay and had a drought- or disaster-related 2023 or 2024 loss, ask FSA whether SDRP applies.

Stage 1 vs Stage 2

• Stage 1: FSA pulled your federal crop insurance and NAP records, calculated your SDRP payment, and mailed a pre-filled application. Sign and return by April 30, 2026.
• Stage 2: for shallow losses below your crop insurance trigger, uninsured crop losses, and quality losses. File form FSA-504 at your local FSA office with your documentation.

Key Details

• Initial payment is 35% of the calculated loss; a second payment may follow if program funds remain.
• Payment factors scale with coverage level. Top Stage 1 factor is 87.5% for high buy-up. Stage 2 factors: 75% (insured shallow losses), 70% (uninsured).
• Total SDRP plus crop insurance indemnity cannot exceed 90% of the loss.
• Accepting SDRP requires you to carry federal crop insurance or NAP at 60% or higher on the affected crop for the next two crop years.
• Producers in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, and Massachusetts receive assistance through state block grants, not SDRP.

→ Full SDRP guide with payment formulas, AGI payment caps, and how to apply for Stage 2

ECAP: Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (2024 Crops)

What It Is

ECAP is a separate $10 billion program from the same American Relief Act that may compensate producers for 2024 crop-year economic losses (as opposed to disaster-related losses). Payments are flat per-acre amounts on 22 covered commodities: corn at $42.91/acre, soybeans at $29.76/acre, wheat at $30.69/acre, and similar rates for grain sorghum, barley, oats, rice, cotton (upland and ELS), peanuts, dry peas, lentils, chickpeas, canola, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, crambe, and sunflowers.

Current Status

Original signup closed August 15, 2025; a limited reopening ran through September 30, 2025. As of April 2026, signup is closed. Producers with approved applications are receiving a second automatic payment that brings the total payment factor to 99% of the scheduled rate (up from the initial 85%).

What to Do

If you applied before August 15, 2025, the second payment should come through automatically — no action needed. If you planted a covered 2024 crop and never filed, the window has closed. Contact your local FSA office if you believe an exception applies (some post-deadline eligible-acre situations may be resolvable).

ELRP: Emergency Livestock Relief Program (2023 & 2024 — Closed)

Status

ELRP covered 2023 and 2024 livestock losses from drought, wildfire, and flood under the American Relief Act. FSA issued final ELRP payments on February 13, 2026 — approximately $1.289 billion for drought and wildfire losses, and $604 million for flood and wildfire. ELRP is effectively closed. Producers who qualified were paid automatically based on prior LFP and LIP records; no separate ELRP application was required.

For livestock losses now or going forward, the permanent programs apply: LIP for death losses, LFP for drought-triggered grazing losses, and ELAP for above-normal feed, water, and livestock movement costs.

Tree Assistance Program (TAP)

What It Is

TAP is the FSA program for orchard, vineyard, nursery, and Christmas tree operations that lost trees, bushes, or vines to a qualifying natural disaster. It can pay to replant lost plants and rehabilitate salvageable ones, when mortality exceeds 15% above normal.

What It Pays

• Replanting: up to 65% of the actual cost of replacing lost trees/bushes/vines, based on stocking rate and species.
• Rehabilitation: up to 50% of the cost of rehabilitating damaged plants.
• Payment cap: $125,000 per person per crop year.

How to File

1. File a notice of loss with your local FSA office within 90 days of when the damage becomes apparent.
2. Provide records of the number and type of trees, bushes, or vines on the stand before and after the disaster.
3. Do not replant before FSA approval, cost-share may be denied for practices started before the application is approved.

If your 2023 or 2024 losses included trees or vines, TAP and SDRP may both apply to different aspects of the same event. Ask FSA to check both.

EFRP: Emergency Forest Restoration Program

What It Is

EFRP is an FSA program for owners of non-industrial private forest (NIPF) land. It can provide cost-share to restore forestland damaged by natural disasters — wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, windstorms, ice storms, floods, and similar events.

What It Covers

• Debris removal
• Site preparation for natural regeneration or replanting
• Tree planting and seedling establishment
• Forest stand improvement
• Restoring forest roads, firebreaks, and stream crossings
• Protective fencing around regeneration areas

Key Details

• Up to 75% cost-share on completed practices.
• Payment cap: $500,000 per disaster per landowner.
• EFRP is activated county by county after a qualifying disaster designation. Application windows are time-limited once the program opens in your county.

If your forestland was damaged in a designated disaster, contact your local FSA office to ask whether EFRP has been activated for your county.

EWP: Emergency Watershed Protection Program

What It Is

EWP is an NRCS program that helps communities recover from watershed impairments after natural disasters — flooding, fire damage to watersheds, debris in stream channels, eroded streambanks, damaged levees.

How Farmers Access It

EWP sponsors are local governments, soil and water conservation districts, or federally recognized tribes, not individual farmers. If disaster damage to waterways or drainage affects your land, reach out to your county, conservation district, or tribal government and ask them to sponsor an EWP project. The sponsor applies to NRCS, secures the non-federal cost share (25% or 10% in Limited Resource Areas), and gets landowner permission for work on private land.

Floodplain Easements (EWP-FPE)

When funding is available, NRCS can purchase permanent floodplain easements directly from willing landowners — up to 75% (or 90% in Limited Resource Areas) of the appraised fair market value. Floodplain easements are an option when flood-prone land is no longer economical to farm. Contact your local NRCS office to ask whether EWP-FPE funding is available.

Stacking Disaster Programs

You can receive payments from multiple programs for the same event. They cover different types of losses and are not mutually exclusive.

One wildfire could trigger: LIP for livestock that died + ELAP for increased feed and water hauling costs + LFP if drought was a factor + ECP for fence and infrastructure repair. Four programs, one event. An emergency loan can supplement any of them.

Most ranchers file for one program, if any. The rancher who files for all four walks away in a very different financial position.

The Disaster Response Checklist

Within 24–48 Hours:

• Document all damage with dated photos and video
• Count and photograph livestock losses
• Call USDA Wildlife Services if predator kills are suspected
• Start keeping every receipt for emergency expenses, feed, water hauling, fencing, labor
• Contact your crop insurance agent if you have crop or forage losses

Within 30 Days:

• File notice of loss with FSA for LIP (livestock deaths)
• File notice of loss with FSA for ELAP (increased costs, grazing losses)
• Report crop losses to your insurance agent
• Check if your county has an ECP sign-up authorized

Within 60 Days:

• Complete full LIP and ELAP applications with documentation
• Apply for ECP if sign-up is open
• Check the Drought Monitor for LFP eligibility
• Explore emergency loan options if needed

Ongoing:

• Keep all receipts for disaster-related expenses
• Maintain a written log of actions, dates, and costs
• Follow up with FSA on application status
• Watch for additional programs announced for your area

What to Do

If you're in a disaster right now: Call your local FSA office today. find yours here or call 1-877-508-8364. Tell them you need to file a notice of loss. Get it on record within 30 days. Everything else can wait.

If drought is building in your area: Check the Drought Monitor weekly. When your county hits D2 for four consecutive weeks or D3 at any point, go to FSA and file for LFP. Start keeping receipts for water hauling and supplemental feed, you'll need them for ELAP.

If you've never dealt with a disaster program: Get NAP coverage on your pasture and forage. Photograph your infrastructure in good condition. Find your local FSA office and introduce yourself before you need them.

If you've already filed for one program: Check whether you're eligible for others. Most producers file for one. The table above shows every program, each one covers a different type of loss from the same event.

These programs exist for every producer in the country. Most don't file because the information is hard to find or the deadlines pass before they know to act. Now you have it.

• Program Stacking Guide: see how disaster programs combine
• Take the eligibility screener
• Find your local FSA office

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