The President signed the 2014 Farm Bill into law on February 7th, and since then, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made progress throughout all farm bill titles – according to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. The new farm bill supports critical economic development in rural America, Vilsack says, which is why implementation is a priority for USDA. On April 15h – USDA announced disaster relief through the Livestock Indemnity Program and Livestock Forage Disaster Program. In 2008 – it took more than a year to set up disaster assistance programs – but this year – it took less than 10 weeks. As of May 1st – Vilsack says approximately 33,000 applications have been received and 16.3-million dollars in payments have been distributed.
USDA is now accepting applications to create web-based tools to help provide producers information on the ARC and PLC programs – along with the protection program for dairy and non-insured crop disaster assistance program. Visit USDA dot gov slash farm bill (www.usda.gov/farmbill) for updates on the implementation process.
Source: NAFB News service
