# Presentation: 770885

## Dairy Disaster Assistance Payment Program

**DDAP-III**

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
Since 2005, many dairy producers have incurred devastating decreases in milk production because of various natural disasters, such as hurricanes, wildfires, ice storms, heavy rainfalls, flooding, severe blizzard conditions, drought, and extreme heat.  These disasters sometimes led to losses in milk production from the death of cows, yield losses, electrical outages that prevented timely milking or handling of milk, and/or other circumstances that led to milk spoiling or having to be dumped, such as when a disaster forced the closure of a milk plant which could not accept regular deliveries or when damaged storage equipment resulted in milk spoilage.  

This is the third installment of a program for dairy losses for a disaster related reason, thus the name Dairy Disaster Assistance Payment Program III, or DDAP-III.  DDAP-I, administered in 2004 was specifically for hurricane affected areas in the Southeastern region of the U.S.  In 2005, we implemented a program to hurricane impacted areas in the Gulf region.  

In module 1 we will review general program information and eligibility provisions for the DDAP-III.

## Authority

- The U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007, (Pub. L. 110-28).
- Regulations for DDAP-III will be provided at 7 CFR Part 786.

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
The authority for implementing this program is The Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007, (Pub. L. 110-28).

Regulations for DDAP-III will be provided at 7 CFR Part 786.

## DDAP-IIII Policy

- Dairy Disaster Assistance Payment
- (DDAP-III) policy and procedure can
- can be found in LD notices.

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
Policy and procedure for the Dairy Disaster Assistance Payment Program will be provided in LD notices.  Specifically, Notice LD-XXX was issued on November ?, 2007, providing State and County Offices with program policy and procedure for conducting DDAP-III signup. 

## Program Purpose

-   Provide monetary assistance to eligible dairy producers for production losses that occurred between  January 1, 2005, and February 28, 2007, in eligible disaster counties as a result of an eligible disaster event.

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
DDAP-III provides monetary assistance to eligible dairy producers for production losses that occurred between January 1, 2005, and February 28, 2007, as a direct result of an eligible disaster event(s) that occurred in eligible disaster counties during that same period.   

Financial strain from production and marketing losses has been a severe burden on some dairy operations. This new program is designed to provide an offset for lost income due to production and marketing disruptions caused by various disasters that occurred throughout the United States between January 2005 and February 2007.

Monetary assistance provided under DDAP-III is not required to be used by the payee for any specific purpose.

## Funding

- $16 million

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
Eligible producers in a dairy operation may receive up to a total of $16 million in direct payments for dairy production losses resulting from natural disasters occurring during the eligible period.

## Eligible Counties

-   Production losses must have occurred in a primary or contiguous county named in one of the following:
- Secretarial disaster designation
- Presidential disaster declaration, or
- FSA Administrator’s Physical Loss Notice (APLN)

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
Eligible Production losses must have occurred in a primary or contiguous county named in one of the following:

  Secretarial disaster designation
  Presidential disaster declaration, or
  FSA Administrator’s Physical Loss Notice (APLN).  

Only eligible production losses occurring in those counties or a contiguous county are eligible for payment.

In the case of an APLN, the notice must be directly related to a natural disaster designated by the President.

A declaration or designation as pointed out here must have been issued for the county to be eligible.  Bad weather itself in the county does not qualify the county as eligible, regardless of the severity of the weather event(s), if the county did not receive a designation or declaration for the specific event(s), then any losses suffered by the producers are not eligible for compensation.

## Website for Eligible Counties

- http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
You may verify county eligibility on the Disaster Assistance Programs Homepage located at this website.

## Eligible Period

- 	The Secretarial designation or Presidential declaration must have been signed _**BETWEEN**_:
- January 1, 2005, and February 28, 2007

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
The Secretarial designation or Presidential declaration must have been signed after January 1, 2005, and before February 28, 2007.  This is considered the eligible period for DDAP-III purposes.  Declarations and designations signed on or before January 1, 2005, or on February 28, 2007, or after are not eligible.

## Eligible Disaster Events

_**IMPORTANT**_:
- The natural disaster that caused the production loss for the dairy operation must be the same disaster event(s) for which a natural disaster was declared or designated.

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

## Loss Related to Declared Disaster

_**Example**_:
- County A receives a Secretarial Disaster declaration for losses caused by drought.
- John Smith, an eligible dairy producer, submits a DDAP-III application claiming production losses because he loss several cows in a barn fire.
- Mr. Smith is ineligible for DDAP-III for production losses related to the barn fire because that event is not covered under the Secretarial declaration for County A.
- County A’s declaration covered losses caused by drought.

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
Consider this example, County A receives a Secretarial Disaster declaration for losses caused by drought.  

John Smith, an eligible dairy producer, submits a DDAP-III application claiming production losses because he loss several cows in a barn fire.  

Mr. Smith is ineligible for DDAP-III for production losses related to the barn fire because that event is not covered under the Secretarial declaration for County A. 

County A’s declaration covered losses caused by drought.  

COC has the discretion to determine losses that are not caused by the disaster associated with the declaration.

## Multiple Disasters

- Some STO’s may have submitted and received only one Secretarial disaster declaration for their State to cover all disaster events, for all counties in the State, for the applicable year.
- In this situation, each COF will have to review their respective DAR to determine the eligible natural disaster applicable to their county.

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
Some STO’s may have submitted and received only one Secretarial disaster declaration for their State to cover all disaster events, for all counties in the State, for the applicable year.

In this situation, each county office will have to review their respective DAR to determine the natural disaster conditions applicable to their county.

For example, State A submitted a disaster declaration in 2006 for all counties listing winter storms, hail, high winds, drought, flooding, and etc. as causes of loss.  However, County B was not affected by each of the multiple disasters in the declaration.  

County B reviews the DAR that was submitted to the STO which shows drought as the only natural disaster condition listed that is applicable to that county.  

DDAP-III participants in County B with eligible losses caused by drought would be eligible for assistance under DDAP-III assuming all other eligibility requirements are met.

When multiple disaster declarations have been issued for a county during the eligible period, claims may be received for all applicable losses.  Selection of a beneficial year is not required.

## Base & Claim Periods

| BASE PERIOD | CLAIM PERIOD |
| --- | --- |
| 2005 | Jan thru Dec 2005 |
| 2006 | Jan thru Dec 2006 |
| Jan/Feb 2007 | Jan and Feb 2007 |

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
The claim period consists of the qualifying months during the period of January 2, 2005, through February 27, 2007, following the base month, during which the loss occurred.

Production losses occurring between January 1, 2005, and February 28, 2007 will be determined from the applicable base year production that corresponds to the natural disaster declaration.  Production losses incurred during each applicable claim period are eligible for benefits if a disaster declaration was issued for a county multiple times during the eligible period.  

## Eligible Dairy Operations

- Consists of any person or group of persons who as a single unit commercially markets milk in the U.S.
- Production and facilities must be located in the U.S.

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
An eligible dairy operation for DDAP-III program purposes is any person or group of persons who as a single unit markets milk commercially and whose production and facilities are located in the United States.

## Eligible Participant

- Is one of the following:
- A citizen of, or legal resident alien in, the United States
- Native American tribe, organization or entity

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
An eligible participant for DDAP-III may include entities that are engaged in an operation that markets milk commercially in the United States and is one who meets one of the following:

Is a citizen of, or legal resident alien in, the United States (including corporations, partnerships, joint operations, etc.) 

2. or a native American tribe, organization or entity. 

Foreign persons, as determined according to 1-PL are not eligible to participate in DDAP-III program.

## Eligibility for Payment

- suffered production losses in an eligible county
- produced and marketed milk in the U.S.
- be a producer in an operation located in a disaster county where losses occurred
- provide proof of marketings
- certify compliance with HELC/WC
- Apply for payment during signup period.

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
To be eligible to receive DDAP-III program benefits, producers in a dairy operation must:

have suffered production losses in an eligible county declared a natural disaster during the eligible period 
have produced and commercially marketed milk in the United States and commercially marketed the milk produced between January 1, 2005, and February 28, 2007   

be a producer on a dairy farm operation physically located in a disaster county where eligible losses were incurred 

provide proof, to COC’s satisfaction, of monthly milk production commercially marketed by all persons in the eligible dairy operation during the applicable base period and claim period

certify compliance with the highly erodible land conservation (HELC) and wetland conservation (WC) provisions on AD-1026 for the calendar year applicable to the natural disaster declaration and loss claim period

apply for payment during the application period announced by the Administrator for FSA.

## FSA-770 DDAP

- FSA-770 DDAP is:
- required for 1st 5 applications by each PT
- required for all FSA employees
- required to be completed before issuing payments
- to be retained in operations’ program folder

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
FSA-770 DDAP developed by the National Office are the only authorized checklists for DDAP-III.  County Offices shall not use State-or-locally-developed checklists for administration of DDAP-III.

FSA-770 DDAP:

must be completed for the first five applications received by each Program Technician at the beginning of the signup period before issuing payment.
Is required for all FSA employees participating in the program, including STC’s and COC’s
Shall be retained in the dairy operations program folder according to 25-AS.

The CED shall spot check each of the five CCC-770 DDAP’s completed by each PT .
DD’s shall spot check, at a minimum, five, not to exceed ten, CCC-770 DDAP’s in each applicable service center. 

## CCC-770 Eligibility

-   County Offices shall ensure that CCC-770 Eligibility is completed before completing FSA-770 DDAP.

- Module 1 - General Information and Eligibility Provisions

**Notes:**
Before completing  FSA-770 DDAP, the county office shall ensure that all eligibility updates have been completed and CCC-770 for eligibility has been completed for each producer in the dairy operation.