PRIMGHAR, Iowa — Currently, most counties in Northwest Iowa are in moderate or severe drought. To help livestock producers cope with reduced forage, USDA has announced two programs – Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) and emergency grazing and haying of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres.

Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP)

The LFP program provides payment to eligible livestock producers who have covered livestock and are also producers of grazed forages that have suffered drought. For Northwest Iowa, the forages include native and improved pastureland with permanent vegetative cover and short and long season small grains planted specifically for grazing. The losses must have occurred in the grazing period and crop year (2021).

Currently, 13 counties are eligible for LFP: Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Kossuth, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Pocahontas and Sioux. Affected livestock producers should contact their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office to set up an appointment if they wish to apply for the assistance.  The deadline to file is January 30, 2022.

A fact sheet for LFP may be downloaded from https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/FactSheets/livestock_forage_program_lfp-fact_sheet.pdf.

Emergency Haying and Grazing of CRP

USDA has authorized emergency haying and grazing of CRP acres to provide relief to livestock producers in areas affected by drought. Counties qualify when they are designated as level “D2 Drought – Severe” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor or if the county FSA requests emergency haying and grazing status, which is a documented 40 percent or greater loss of forage production due to a disaster event.

All counties in Northwest Iowa are eligible for CRP emergency haying and grazing. But before haying and grazing, producers need to contact their local FSA office to verify their county is still eligible and to obtain a modified conservation plan.

Producers may use the CRP acreage for their own livestock or may grant another livestock producer use of their CRP acreage. For emergency haying, producers are limited to one cutting and may sell the hay. Participants must remove all hay from CRP acreage within 15 days after baling and remove all livestock from CRP acreage no later than one day after the end of the emergency grazing period.

For details on the primary nesting season, permitted activities, and frequency, USDA has a fact sheet that can be accessed from https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/FactSheets/crp_haying_grazing_factsheet.pdf.

— Beth Doran, Beef Specialist
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach

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