Tag: California dairy flooding

Flooding Disaster Relief Enrollment Open Through Oct. 31

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

USDA announced the application period for the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) which will assist producers who experienced flooding-related losses in 2023 and 2024. The first federal livestock disaster assistance program designed to address losses from feed supply chain disruption due to flooding, announced Sept. 12, has come after years of NMPF efforts to ensure aid for affected producers.

“We’re grateful to Secretary Rollins and the USDA Team for delivering needed emergency relief for dairy farmers nationwide,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “The support is a lifeline for producers still working to recover from devastating 2023 floods and 2024 hurricanes.”

The program covers flooding losses in 2023 and 2024, covering nearly all California counties as well as parts of New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

NMPF worked alongside Rep. David Valadao, R-CA, nearly from the time floods first began devastating California farms in 2023, securing these funds through last year’s American Relief Act by providing Congress with key information regarding the losses dairy farmers faced from the floods.  Reps. Jim Costa, D-CA, and Vince Fong, R-CA, were also critical in helping NMPF advocate for flood-affected dairy farmers in the legislation.

Dairy farmers can apply for ELRP’s $1 billion in available funding until Oct. 31, after which USDA will begin making payments. Click here for more information about producer and livestock eligibility.

California Flood Woes Far from Ebbing

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

A record snowpack that’s far from fully melted, combined with last winter’s record rains, may mean it will be some time before Cory Vanderham, owner of Vanderham West Dairy in Corcoran, CA, will get his 4,500 cows all back to his farm.

In the meantime, he’s relying on leases in other locations, help from friends, and faith, to get through an ongoing disruption to the dairy industry in the nation’s top milk-producing state that creates new challenges every day.

“You don’t realize how strong this community is and how strong ag is until things get wild like this,” said Vanderham, a member of NMPF’s Board of Directors and the California Dairies Inc. cooperative, said in a Dairy Defined podcast released today. “And when it got wild, everybody showed up to help.”

Vanderham also discusses his on-the-ground observations on what kind of policy changes and investments at all levels of government could improve the state’s water management and infrastructure as farmers look toward a more resilient future in the face of weather extremes. The full podcast is below. You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Broadcast outlets may use the MP3 file below. Please attribute information to NMPF.