Few farmers or ranchers in Louisiana, East Texas and elsewhere will likely soon forget the summer of 2023. Even now, a year and a half removed from the ordeal, some are still recovering from the consequences of the severe drought and scorching heat. As Eva Tesfaye with Louisiana Public Radio (LPR) reports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering financial assistance to those who lost livestock from that extreme weather. The USDA programs include the Livestock Indemnity Program, the Livestock Forage Disaster Program and the Emergency Livestock Assistance Program. The USDA has said it expects these kinds of payments to producers to more than double in the next few decades due to climate change.
By November 2023 preliminary estimates from the impacts of drought and excessive heat on Louisiana’s agricultural and forestry sectors began to come in. An LSU AgCenter report, for example, estimated the total economic impact statewide at $1.69 billion. Impacts to livestock enterprises and hay production accounted for 23% of that total, or $389.2 million. That included the loss of nearly 3,000 head of cattle.
The Emergency Livestock Assistance Program is also available for livestock lost to H5N1, also known as Avian Influenza, or bird flu. The disease has infected almost a thousand dairy herds across the country so far, according to the CDC. The USDA has aligned the deadlines for these programs for March 3, 2025, to make it easier to apply.
