Livestock Forage Disaster Program

The Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) is a United States federal program that provides payments to eligible livestock producers who suffer grazing losses on eligible land due to a qualifying drought or, in the case of federally managed land, a qualifying fire. It is administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

LFP was first authorized as a supplemental agricultural disaster program by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill), and was made a permanent standing program under Title I, Section 1501, of the Agricultural Act of 2014. The program is codified at 7 U.S.C. § 9081.

Background

Prior to the 2008 Farm Bill, federal disaster aid to livestock producers was delivered primarily through ad-hoc supplemental appropriations following major weather events, such as the Livestock Assistance Program used for the 2001 and 2002 drought years. The 2008 Farm Bill (P.L. 110-246) created a permanent framework of standing livestock disaster programs — LFP together with the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) and the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) — funded from the Agricultural Disaster Relief Trust Fund, rather than requiring a new congressional appropriation after each event.

The 2014 Farm Bill made LFP permanent and retroactively covered losses that occurred in 2011, 2012, and 2013, a period during which the program had lapsed. Payments are funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Eligibility

LFP provides payments to eligible producers of covered livestock who suffer grazing losses of one of two types:

• Drought on land that is native or improved pastureland with permanent vegetative cover, or that is planted specifically for grazing covered livestock; and
• Fire on rangeland that is managed by a federal agency, when the producer is prohibited by the agency from grazing the normal permitted livestock on that land because of the fire.

Covered livestock include beef and dairy cattle, buffalo and beefalo maintained for commercial purposes, sheep, goats, alpacas, deer, elk, emus, equine used commercially, llamas, poultry maintained for commercial purposes, reindeer, and swine.

To be eligible, a producer must own, cash-lease, or share-lease the covered livestock and have owned, cash-leased, or share-leased the eligible grazing land during the normal grazing period for the county. Producers must certify the number of livestock and the acres of eligible grazing land, and must file an application by the applicable deadline (generally January 30 of the year after the loss).

Drought triggers

Eligibility for a drought-related LFP payment is based on the U.S. Drought Monitor classification for the county in which the eligible grazing land is physically located, during the county's normal grazing period. The monthly payment multipliers are:

• D2 (Severe Drought) for at least four consecutive weeks — one monthly payment
• D2 for at least seven of eight consecutive weeks — two monthly payments
• D3 (Extreme Drought) at any time during the normal grazing period — three monthly payments
• D3 for at least four weeks, or D4 (Exceptional Drought) at any time — four monthly payments
• D4 for four weeks (not necessarily consecutive) during the normal grazing period — five monthly payments

The D2 four-week trigger was established under a July 8, 2026 rule change, described below. Under the previous rule, the D2 single-payment trigger required eight consecutive weeks of D2 drought during the normal grazing period.

Payment calculation

The monthly LFP payment rate for drought-related grazing losses is equal to 60 percent of the lesser of:

• the monthly feed cost for all covered livestock owned or leased by the producer, or
• the monthly feed cost calculated using the normal carrying capacity of the eligible grazing land.

Monthly feed cost is calculated by FSA using a national average for the corn-equivalent daily feed requirement for the livestock type, multiplied by a national feed price. The resulting monthly rate is multiplied by 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 depending on the applicable drought trigger, up to a maximum of five monthly payments per program year.

For fire-related losses on federally managed land, the payment is equal to 50 percent of the monthly feed cost for the number of days the producer is prohibited from grazing the affected land, not to exceed 180 calendar days.

Payments to a single producer under LFP are subject to a $125,000 per-program-year payment limitation.

2026 rule changes

On July 8, 2026, USDA announced a package of rule changes to LFP and related livestock disaster programs implementing provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21), which is also referred to in USDA implementation materials as the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. The changes were made retroactive to January 1, 2026.

The principal LFP changes were:

• Lowering the D2 single-payment trigger from eight consecutive weeks to four consecutive weeks of D2 drought during the normal grazing period.
• Adding a new two-monthly-payment trigger at D2 for seven of eight consecutive weeks.

USDA estimated the LFP trigger changes at approximately $343 million per year in additional program cost. The July 8, 2026 package as a whole — including changes to LIP and ELAP — was estimated at approximately $927 million per year.

Administration

LFP is administered by USDA's Farm Service Agency through its network of county offices. Producers apply at the FSA county office serving the county in which the eligible grazing land is physically located. Documentation of livestock counts, grazing land acres, lease arrangements, and, for fire losses, the federal agency's prohibition on grazing, is required.

The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln operates a public LFP county-eligibility lookup tool that reports the current LFP status of each county based on the U.S. Drought Monitor.

See also

• Livestock Assistance Program
• Livestock Indemnity Program
• U.S. Drought Monitor
• Farm Service Agency
• Agricultural Act of 2014
• Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008

External links

• Livestock Forage Disaster Program at USDA Farm Service Agency
• FSA LFP Eligibility Tool at the National Drought Mitigation Center
• CRS Report R48082: Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP): Drought and Wildfire Assistance

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