05/13/2026
The Burke-McDowell-Caldwell and Mitchell-Yancey FSA Offices have opened the Livestock Forage Program (LFP) for grazing losses on native pasture and full season improved pasture due to the qualifying D3 drought. LFP provides compensation if you suffer grazing losses for covered livestock due to drought on privately owned or cash leased land or fire on federally managed land.
To sign-up for LFP, producers must report their acreage for pasture (we also take hay acreage reports while we are completing pasture). The deadline to timely file a grass for hay or pasture acreage report is July 15th. If acreage reports for grass are filed after July 15th, a late-file fee of $46 per farm will be assessed. All leased pasturelands will require a lease agreement to be on file with our office for LFP eligibility.
On the livestock information, we will need the total number of head they have on hand within 60 days prior to April 21st, 2026, so February 21st - April 21st, 2026. The livestock numbers are broken down by adults (cows and bulls), non-adults 500 lbs. or more, and non-adults 500 lbs. or less. Any calves under 500 pounds listed must be weaned and grazing. Unweaned cattle are not considered grazing animals as defined and are not eligible for LFP. If any livestock was sold during those dates, we can count those and the producer can bring a copy of their sales ticket.
I have attached an old fact sheet for the program because we have not been given an updated one. I'm going to send out an email bulletin in the next day or two with information on the sign up also.
If any producers are wanting to sign up, call us to schedule an appointment before stopping by. There are several items we have to get from you and load into the system before an application will generate. It takes a little bit of time to load everything especially when folks haven't reported or updated their records in a while. In order to keep everything flowing smoothly for us and the producers, we must have appointments scheduled.
