Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP)

What It Is

The American Relief Act, 2025, provides for $2 billion in emergency relief payments to livestock producers suffering losses due to drought, wildfires, or flooding in calendar years 2023 and 2024.

How It Works

The Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) is administered as two programs:  

  1. Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) 2023 and 2024 Drought and Wildfire, announced in May, compensates producers who suffered eligible grazing losses due to drought and wildfire in 2023 and/or 2024.
     
  2. Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire helps offset increased supplemental feed costs due to qualifying floods or wildfires on non-federally managed land in 2023 and/or 2024.

These programs are administered separately as they provide compensation for different losses and have different eligibility requirements and payment calculations.

  •  

    ELRP 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire

    FSA is issuing approximately $1 billion in emergency relief payments to help offset increased supplemental feed costs due to qualifying flood or wildfire. Only qualifying wildfires on non-federally managed lands are eligible.

    The enrollment period is open from Sept. 15, 2025, through Oct. 31, 2025.
     

    Learn More About ELRP for Flood and Wildfire

  •  

    ELRP 2023 and 2024 Drought and Wildfire

    FSA is issuing approximately $1 billion in emergency relief payments to ranchers who have approved applications through the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) for grazing losses due to eligible drought or wildfire in 2023 and/or 2024. Only wildfires on federally managed lands are eligible.

    See dashboard for payment details.
     

    Learn More About ELRP for Drought and Wildfire

ELRP 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire

FSA is issuing approximately $1 billion in emergency relief payments to help offset increased supplemental feed costs due to qualifying flood or wildfire. Livestock producers can receive payment for one or both years.

 

Who Is Eligible

To be eligible for an ELRP payment, livestock producers must:

  • Have eligible livestock
  • Meet “qualifying disaster event” criteria

Qualifying Disaster Events

Approved Counties

To streamline program delivery, FSA has compiled a list of approved counties with qualifying floods and wildfires in 2023 and 2024. For losses in these counties, livestock producers are not required to submit supporting documentation for floods or wildfires. A list of approved counties is available below. 

View Approved Counties Dashboard

Counties Not Listed as Approved

For losses in counties not listed as approved, livestock producers can apply for assistance but must provide supporting documentation to demonstrate that a qualifying flood or wildfire occurred in the county where the livestock were physically located or would have been physically located if not for the disaster event. FSA county committees will determine if the disaster event meets program requirements.

Acceptable documentation includes:  

  • Photographs documenting impact to livestock, land, or property
  • Insurance documentation
  • Emergency declaration reports
  • News articles
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration storm event database records
  • Other FSA disaster program participation records
  • Other documentation determined acceptable by the FSA county committee
 

Payment Calculations

Eligible producers can receive up to 60% of one month of calculated feed costs for a qualifying wildfire or three months for a qualifying flood using the same monthly feed cost calculation that is used for LFP. 

Payment Limit

ELRP 2023 and 2024 for Drought and Wildfire and ELRP 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire have a combined payment limit of $125,000 for each program year. Producers who already received the maximum payment amount from ELRP 2023 and 2024 for Drought and Wildfire will not be eligible to receive an additional payment under ELRP 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire. 

Eligible producers may submit form FSA-510, Request for an Exception to the $125,000 Payment Limitation for Certain Programs, to be considered for an increased payment limit of $250,000.

Learn How To Apply
 

ELRP 2023 and 2024 Drought and Wildfire

USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is issuing approximately $1 billion in emergency relief payments to:

  • Ranchers who have approved applications through the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) for grazing losses due to eligible drought or wildfire in 2023 and /or 2024.
  • Livestock producers can receive payment for one or both years.
 

Expedited Relief

USDA is leveraging existing LFP data to streamline payment calculations and expedite relief. Emergency relief payments are automatically issued for producers who have an approved LFP application on file for 2023 and/or 2024.

  • LFP provides up to 60% of the estimated replacement feed cost when an eligible drought adversely impacts grazing lands or
  • 50% of the monthly feed cost for the number of days the producer is prohibited from grazing federally managed rangeland because of a qualifying wildfire.
 

Who Is Eligible

To be eligible for an ELRP payment, livestock producers must:

  • Have suffered grazing losses in a county rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor as having a D2 (severe drought) for eight consecutive weeks or a D3 (extreme drought) or higher level of drought intensity during the normal grazing periods established in 2023, 2024 or both calendar years, and
  • Have applied and been approved for LFP.
  • Additionally, producers whose permitted grazing on federally managed lands was reduced due to wildfire are also eligible for ELRP, if they applied and were approved for LFP in 2023, 2024 or both calendar years.
 

Payments Dashboard

This page provides weekly stats on the total number of ELRP payments disbursed by state. 

View the ELRP Drought & Wildfire Dashboard

 

Payment Calculations

To expedite payments to eligible livestock producers, determine eligibility, and calculate an ELRP payment, FSA will:

  • Use livestock inventories and drought-affected forage acreage or restricted animal units and grazing days due to wildfire already reported by the producer when they submitted the CCC-853, Livestock Forage Disaster Program Application form for 2023, 2024 or both calendar years.      

ELRP payments will be:

  • Equal to the eligible livestock producer’s gross LFP calculated payment for the calendar year multiplied by an ELRP 2023 or 2024 payment factor to determine the total gross ELRP payments for 2023 and/or 2024. 

Payment Factor

  • The initial payment factor for 2023 and 2024 ELRP payments is 35%.  

If additional funds remain, FSA may issue a second payment.
 

How To Apply

For Flood and Wildfire in 2023 and/or 2024

  1. See If Your County Is Approved

    To streamline program delivery, FSA has determined approved counties with qualifying floods and wildfires in 2023 and 2024. For losses in these counties, livestock producers are not required to submit supporting documentation for floods or wildfires.

    View Approved Counties

  2. If Your County Is Not Listed As Eligible, Provide Documentation to FSA

    For losses in counties not listed as eligible, livestock producers can apply for assistance but must provide supporting documentation to demonstrate that a qualifying flood or wildfire occurred in the county where the livestock were physically located or would have been physically located if not for the disaster event. FSA county committees will determine if the disaster event meets program requirements.

    Acceptable documentation includes:  

    • Photographs documenting impact to livestock, land, or property
    • Insurance documentation
    • Emergency declaration reports
    • News articles
    • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration storm event database records
    • Other FSA disaster program participation records
    • Other documentation determined acceptable by the FSA county committee

  3. Submit These Documents and Forms

    Livestock producers must submit the following for the applicable program year(s) by Oct. 31, 2025:

    • FSA-970, Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) 2023 and 2024 FW Application
    • Supporting documentation of livestock inventories as of the beginning date of the qualifying disaster event reported on FSA-970
    • Supporting documentation of the qualifying disaster event(s) reported on FSA-970 (if applicable)
    • Supporting documentation to establish or update FSA’s farm records to support and verify the livestock producer’s physical location of their livestock (if applicable)
    • Copy of the producer’s contract grower agreement (if applicable)
    • Form AD-2047, Customer Data Worksheet
    • SF-3881, Direct Deposit

    Livestock producers must also submit the following forms to FSA by Nov. 2, 2026, to be eligible for payment:

    • Form CCC-902, Farm Operating Plan for an individual or legal entity
    • Form CCC-901, Member Information for Legal Entities (if applicable)
    • Form AD-1026, Highly Erodible Land Conservation (HELC) and Wetland (WC) Certification, for the ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW producer and applicable affiliates
    • Form FSA-510, Request for an Exception to the $125,000 Payment Limitation for Certain Programs (if applicable)

  4. Receive Your Payments

    Payments will be issued following the application deadline at which time, a final payment factor will be determined, if applicable, to ensure payments do not exceed available funding.

Additional Resources

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