Robert Pore's Ag Blog

LINCOLN — Nebraska Farm Bureau is calling on U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns to reestablish the Livestock Compensation Program for livestock producers who live in counties that receive a primary disaster declaration because of drought.
Because of recent action by Congress to drop disaster assistance from the emergency supplemental spending bill, it appears that it would be later, rather than sooner when Congress considers disaster assistance, Nebraska Farm Bureau President Keith Olsen said in a letter to Johanns.

“Therefore, we believe the Livestock Compensation Program would provide the most immediate and useful assistance to ranchers. It would provide some direct cash relief which may buy time for many who will soon face difficult financial decisions,” he said.

Farm Bureau also asked Johanns to immediately authorize emergency haying on CRP acres already designated for emergency grazing. Nineteen Nebraska counties and portions of three others have been approved for emergency CRP grazing. “However, the current final primary nesting and brood rearing date on CRP aces in Nebraska is July 15 which is when producers are allowed to emergency hay CRP. We believe the CRP forage will deteriorate severely by July 15,” Olsen said.

In addition, many CRP acres are not fenced and lack water, which makes them not capable of grazing livestock. Therefore, granting emergency CRP grazing does not provide much help to many producers, Olsen said. He also noted that much of the Great Plains area experienced a mild winter so the nesting and brooding season is well ahead of its normal schedule. And because only 50 percent of CRP acres would be allowed to be hayed if the request were granted, any negative affect on nesting and brood rearing would be minimized.

The FSA State Technical Committee already has recommended emergency haying by July 1 to USDA, he said, so there are many interests in Nebraska that believe an earlier release of emergency CRP haying is appropriate.