Cattle producers can now receive additional assistance to offset the impact of unparalleled drought and skyrocketing input costs.
Allison Rivera with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says the USDA has expanded the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) to now cover a portion of the costs incurred from the transportation of livestock to feed sources. “Producers were also really concerned about having the flexibility to transport livestock to other feed sources,” she says. “To give a breadth of options to cover those costs they wouldn’t normally have to undertake.”
ELAP originally covered the cost of moving feed to livestock, but for cattle producers, hauling livestock to other feed sources is often more efficient and economical.
She tells Brownfield that ongoing drought and wildfires have made rangeland insufficient for proper grazing in some areas.
