Assisting Farmers and Ranchers Affected by Fires

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Recent wildfires in the state have greatly impacted many ranchers and farmers. According to FSA State Executive Director Judy Olson the USDA Farm Service Agency has several programs in place to assist them, such as the Livestock Indemnity Program. Olson would like to remind producers who are submitting claims for cattle killed by wildfires that they need supporting documentation.

OLSON: There are lots of kinds of documentation that we can use. Some of the proof of death documentation might be rendering truck receipts or certificates, national guard records, veterinary records - you could use those both to prove that you had the livestock prior to the fire and then that they were missing - records assembled for tax purposes, production and breeding records, vaccination and branding records, ear tags, and of course photographs of the livestock.

As far as grazing loss documentation.

OLSON: Contracts or leases of land where they are grazing or proof of ownership, maps that indicate the areas that they were in before the fire, and the numbers of animals there. Those kinds of documentation are also very helpful, because at the end of the day we have to determine the number of livestock that were there the day before the fire and then how many are left afterwards.

Tomorrow Olson will talk about reimbursement percentages for producers suffering loss and how the right documentation can help with that. For more information producers should contact their local FSA office.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.