WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expediting a farm bill provision that provides relief to North Dakota ranchers devastated by an early October blizzard. The agency is responding with unusual speed after fierce lobbying and pressure from the congressional delegations in both Dakotas.
The USDA said Friday it would begin accepting applications in mid-April for a livestock disaster program that was reauthorized in a comprehensive, five-year farm bill passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama last week.
Ranchers will be able to sign up for livestock disaster programs for losses that were incurred in 2012 through 2014. North Dakota losses from the Oct. 4-5 blizzard have not officially been tabulated, but are believed to be more than 1,000 animals. South Dakota ranchers lost an estimated 43,000 cattle and other livestock.
Friday’s announcement means ranchers can begin seeking relief within 60 days of the new farm bill becoming law.
Under the last farm bill, enacted in 2008, it took more than a year to re-establish the program and begin taking applications. This time around, Dakotas lawmakers have made clear that would be unacceptable.
“By cutting through some red tape, we were able to expedite this support, so our ranchers have access to the disaster relief we fought so hard to include in the Farm Bill,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said in a statement.
Heitkamp met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack earlier this week and pressed the issue in person. Friday’s announcement came after she and other lawmakers signed onto a letter last week urging him to make reactivating the livestock disaster program his top priority.
The other members of the state’s congressional delegation, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., have also supported expediting the program.
Many North Dakota ranchers praised the decision. They said they were glad that they would be able to access the program for previous losses and for the added security it gives them going forward.
“In the Dakotas, our ranchers have felt the dire consequences of not having livestock disaster assistance available,” said Kenny Graner, President of the Independent Beef Association of North Dakota. “The storm in October devastated so many of our cattle herds - the livelihoods for so many of us.”
Graner said ranchers didn’t have any recourse before but “now things have changed. Today’s announcement is great news for ranchers all across North Dakota and South Dakota.”
Jason Zahn, a cow-calf producer near Towner, N.D., and the president of the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association, said that renewal of the retroactive support was his organization’s top priority in the new farm bill. He said it “will help producers who suffered catastrophic weather-related losses recoup.”
Former North Dakota Agriculture commissioner Roger Johnson, who now serves as president of the National Farmers Union, said the USDA was making the right decision.
“Sound agriculture policy, like the livestock disaster programs, are among the reasons NFU supported the 2014 Farm Bill,” Johnson said. “I applaud the work of the President and USDA in getting the livestock disaster programs up and running in a time when they’re truly needed.”
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Associated Press writer Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.
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