Cape Girardeau County livestock owners eligible for disaster assistance

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency will provide disaster assistance to livestock owners in Cape Girardeau County. The deadline to apply for the Livestock Forage Program (LFP) is Monday, Jan. 30.

According to a news release from Randy C. Koenig, executive director of Cape Girardeau County Farm Service Agency, the LFP will provide payments to eligible livestock owners "who are producers of grazed acreage (improved pastureland)."

Koenig's release stated the qualifying drought for Cape Girardeau County began Oct. 25, 2022, and qualifying grazing losses must have occurred in that grazing period and crop year.

The release listed eligible livestock as grazing animals that satisfy "the majority of net energy requirement of nutrition" via grazing of grasses or legumes -- such species as beef and dairy cattle, horses, goats and sheep, among others

Livestock considered eligible include those that are or would have been grazing the eligible grazing land or pastureland Oct. 25, 2022.

A complete Livestock Forage Program fact sheet may be found online at www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/FactSheets/fsa_lfp-livestockforageprogramfactsheet-2022_final.pdf.

For more information, contact the Cape Girardeau County USDA Service Center at (573) 243-1467, ext. 2, or visit www.fsa.usda.gov.