News

Program beneficial to Indiana producers

Eligible producers can now sign up for USDA’s new disaster assistance programs, restored by passage of the 2014 Farm Bill.  The programs include the Livestock Forage Disaster Program; the Livestock Indemnity Program; the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm Raised Fish Program; and the Tree Assistance Program.

Indiana Farm Service Agency Director Julia Wickard says the Livestock Forage Disaster Program will provide the most benefit to Indiana producers.  “We’re expecting 86 of the 92 counties will qualify for the program, as it relates to the drought monitor as it was issued on August 12, 2012,” she says.  “We had 86 counties at that time, we had Secretarial disasters issued to Indiana because of the drought we experienced in 2012.”

Wickard tells Brownfield the programs are retroactive to assist those producers for operating costs, feed losses, and things that they’ve lost as part of their farming operations.

When producers contact the local FSA County office, they will want an inventory of what animals they had on pasture at that time and what forage loss they may have had during the summer of 2012.