U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-KS, has commended the U.S. Department of Agriculture for announcing changes to the Emergency Livestock Assistance Program that provide additional assistance to farmers who suffer wildfire losses of winter stored forage during the winter months.
Previously, ELAP only covered the normal grazing season in Kansas. This prevented ranchers who left pastureland idle during the normal grazing season from recovering losses to grass if a disaster struck in the winter. This exact scenario happened in December 2021 when wildfires ripped through an area near Paradise, Kansas, burning an estimated 163,000 acres, including winter pasture being grazed.
USDA confirmed with Senator Marshall that this change will retroactively help our Kansas producers from the 4-county (Ellis, Rooks, Osborne, Russell) fire that December.
