Emergency Livestock 

Relief Program

(ELRP)

Background

ELRP is part of FSA’s implementation of 

the Extending Government Funding and 

Delivering Emergency Assistance Act (P.L. 

117-43), which provides $10 billion in 

much needed emergency assistance for 

agricultural producers, including $750 

million specifically targeted for livestock 

producers impacted by the severe drought 

or eligible wildfire. 

Overview

To help agricultural producers offset the 

impacts of natural disasters, ranchers who 

faced increased supplemental feed costs 

resulting from forage losses due to severe 

drought or wildfire in 2021 can receive 

emergency assistance payments through 

the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Emergency 

Livestock Relief Program (ELRP).

Eligibility

USDA will follow a two-phased process to 

administer relief through ELRP to eligible 

livestock producers:

• Phase 1 will leverage data from the 

2021 Livestock Forage Disaster 

Program (LFP) year to determine 

payments to assist with increased 

supplemental feed costs;

• Phase 2 will will utilize livestock 

producer’s gross 2021 ELRP Phase 1 

payment to compensate for the loss of 

winter grazing directly affected by the 

drought and wildfire conditions. 

For impacted producers, USDA will leverage 

2021 LFP data to deliver immediate relief. 

LFP is an important tool that 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 the managed 

rangeland because of a qualifying wildfire. 

LFP provides additional assistance to 

producers for eligible livestock that were 

sold due to a qualifying drought. 

ELRP only includes 2021 LFP participants. 

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 2021 calendar 

year normal grazing season; or whose 

permitted grazing on federally managed 

lands was disallowed due to wildfire are 

also eligible for ELRP payments. 

How to Apply

As part of FSA’s efforts to streamline and 

simplify the delivery of ELRP benefits, 

eligible livestock producers are not 

required to submit an application for ELRP 

Phase 1 or 2; however, they must have 

the following forms on file as determined 

by FSA’s Deputy Administrator for 

Farm Programs: 

• CCC-853, Livestock Forage Disaster 

Program Application 

• Form AD-2047, Customer Data 

Worksheet. 

• Form CCC-902, Farm Operating Plan 

for an individual or legal entity. 

• Form CCC-901, Member Information 

for Legal Entities (if applicable). 

• Form FSA-510, Request for an Exception 

to the $125,000 Payment Limitation for 

Certain Programs (if applicable). 

For More Info

Additional USDA disaster 

assistance information 

can be found on farmers.

gov, including USDA 

resources specifically for 

producers impacted by 

drought and wildfire and 

the Disaster Assistance 

Discovery Tool, Disasterat-a-Glance fact sheet, 

and Farm Loan Discovery 

Tool. 

For FSA and Natural 

Resources Conservation 

Service programs, 

producers should contact 

their local USDA Service 

Center. For assistance 

with a crop insurance 

claim, producers and 

landowners should 

contact their crop 

insurance agent. 

SEPTEMBER 2023 fsa.usda.gov
EMERGENCY LIVESTOCK RELIEF PROGRAM 2

• Form CCC-860, Socially Disadvantaged, Limited 

Resource, Beginning and Veteran Farmer or Rancher 

Certification, if applicable for the 2021 program year. 

• A highly erodible land conservation (sometimes referred 

to as HELC) and wetland conservation certification 

(Form AD-1026 Highly Erodible Land Conservation 

(HELC) and Wetland Conservation (WC) Certification) 

for the ELRP producer and applicable affiliates. 

Eligible Livestock

Eligible livestock are the same as those that are eligible for 

LFP: grazing animals that satisfy the majority of net energy 

requirement of nutrition via grazing of eligible forage 

grasses or legumes and include such species as alpacas, 

beef cattle, buffalo/bison, beefalo, dairy cattle, deer, elk, 

emus, equine, goats, llamas, reindeer or sheep.

As with LFP, livestock eligible for ELRP must:

• Have been owned, leased, purchased, entered into 

a contract to purchase, or held by a contract grower 

during the 60 days prior to the beginning date of a 

qualifying drought or fire condition;

• Have been sold or otherwise disposed of due to 

a qualifying drought condition during the current 

production year or one or both of the two production 

years immediately preceding the current production 

year;

• Have been maintained for commercial use as part of a 

farming operation on the beginning date of the eligible 

drought or fire condition; 

• Not have been produced and maintained for reasons 

other than commercial use as part of a farming 

operation (such excluded uses include, but are not 

limited to, wild free-roaming animals or animals used 

for recreational purposes such as pleasure, hunting, 

pets, roping or for show); and 

• Not have been livestock that were or would have been 

in a feedlot on the beginning date of the qualifying 

drought or fire as part of the normal business operation 

of the livestock owner or contract grower.

Eligible Producers

Producer eligibility for ELRP aligns with LFP policies.

To be eligible for ELRP, persons or legal entities must be 

a U.S. citizen, resident alien, partnership of U.S. citizens, a 

legal entity organized under State law, or an Indian tribe or 

tribal organization defined in the Indian Self-determination 

and Education Assistance Act that: 

• Own, cash or share lease, or be a contract grower of 

covered livestock during the 60 calendar days before 

the beginning date of a qualifying drought or fire; 

• Provide pastureland or grazing land for covered 

livestock, including cash-rented pastureland or grazing 

land as of the date of the qualifying drought or fire that 

is either:

• Physically located in a county affected by a qualifying 

drought during the normal grazing period for the 

county; or

• Rangeland managed by a federal agency for which the 

otherwise eligible livestock producer is prohibited by 

the federal agency from grazing the normally permitted 

livestock because of a qualifying fire.

• Certify that they have suffered a grazing loss because 

of a qualifying drought or fire; and 

• Timely file an acreage report for all grazing land for 

which a grazing loss is being claimed.

SEPTEMBER 2023 fsa.usda.gov
EMERGENCY LIVESTOCK RELIEF PROGRAM 3

ELRP Phase 1 Payment Calculation 

To further expedite payments to eligible livestock 

producers, determine eligibility, and calculate an ELRP 

Phase 1 payment, FSA will utilize 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 a 2021 CCC-853, Livestock 

Forage Disaster Program Application form. 

Phase 1 ELRP payments will be equal to the eligible 

livestock producer’s gross 2021 LFP calculated payment 

multiplied by an ELRP payment percentage. 

The ELRP payment percentage will be 90% for historically 

underserved producers, and 75% for all other producers. 

To qualify for the higher payment percentage, eligible 

producers must have a CCC-860, Socially Disadvantaged, 

Limited Resource, Beginning and Veteran Farmer or 

Rancher Certification, form on file with FSA for the 2021 

program year. 

ELRP Phase 2 Payment Calculation

Due to the excessive and expansive drought and wildfires in 

2021, livestock producers suffered extreme grazing losses 

that not only impacted the normal grazing periods, but also 

directly impacted accessibility to winter grazing. 

The additional Phase 2 payment will compensate eligible 

livestock producers for the loss of winter grazing directly 

affected by the drought and wildfire conditions. 

Eligible livestock producers for ELRP Phase 2 are producers 

with an approved 2021 LFP application who received an 

ELRP Phase 1 payment. 

The ELRP Phase 2 payment will be equal to 20% percent of 

the 2021 gross ELRP Phase 1 payment to compensate for 

the loss of winter grazing directly affected by the drought 

and wildfire conditions.

Payment Limitation and Adjusted 

Gross Income

Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) limitations do not apply 

to ELRP; however, the payment limitation for ELRP is 

determined by the person’s or legal entity’s average 

adjusted gross farm income (income derived from farming, 

ranching, and forestry operations). Specifically, a person 

or legal entity, other than a joint venture or general 

partnership, cannot receive, directly or indirectly, more than 

$125,000 in payments under ELRP if their average adjusted 

gross farm income is less than 75 percent of their average 

AGI for tax years 2017, 2018, and 2019. 

If at least 75 percent of the person or legal entity’s average 

AGI is derived from farming, ranching, or forestry related 

activities and the participant provides the required 

certification and documentation, as discussed below, the 

person or legal entity, other than a joint venture or general 

partnership, is eligible to receive, directly or indirectly, up 

to $250,000 in ELRP payments. To request the increased 

payment limitation, participants must file form FSA-510 

complete with participant’s certification their average 

adjusted gross farm income is at least 75 percent of their 

average AGI and a certification from a Licensed Certified 

Public Accountant (CPA) or Attorney that the participant 

meets the requirements. 

Attribution of payments apply to ELRP and payments to a 

legal entity are tracked through four levels of ownership, 

attributed, and limited to persons or legal entities that 

hold an ownership interest in the legal entity. For more 

information, see the Direct Attribution information on the 

Payment Limitations web page.

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