Many farmers in portions of the upper Midwest have been dealing with the impacts of severe storms and heavy rains during the month of June.
A widespread area of west central and northern Minnesota, along with portions of North and South Dakota have been impacted by the tornadoes, strong winds, and heavy rainfall. Some locations in west central Minnesota have received 12-16 inches of rain or more during the month of June, which has resulted in flash flooding near rivers and streams and considerable standing water in many areas. The result of the severe storms and excessive rainfall has been significant drown-out damage to crops, some loss of livestock, and physical damage to buildings and other property on farm sites. There are some USDA assistance programs to potentially assist producers that are available through the USDA Farm Service Agency.
The following are some of the assistance programs that could be available through USDA:
Livestock Indemnity Program
The LIP program is available to livestock producers that incur damage to livestock due to tornadoes, flooding, or other natural disasters. This program is intended to aid livestock producers who lost livestock or had livestock sales impacted by the natural disaster. Producers who have livestock-related losses need to submit evidence of the losses to their local FSA office. Livestock producers who experience losses related to tornado or strong wind damage should check with their local FSA office for further details on LIP eligibility.
Emergency Livestock Assistance Program
The ELAP program for livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish to provide eligible producers and compensation for feed and grazing losses. To qualify for ELAP, producers are required to complete a notice of loss and a payment application at their local FSA office. The deadline for 2025 ELAP applications at FSA offices is January 30, 2026. There is a separate Tree Assistance Program (TAP) available through FSA offices for orchard owners that had lost or damaged fruit trees.
Emergency Relief program
USDA has initiated the Emergency Relief Program on several occasions in recent years to provide additional assistance to crop producers with extensive crop losses due to natural disasters. It is expected that the sign-up period will begin very soon for the 2023 and 2024 disaster assistance program. One segment of the ERP program provides payments beyond federal crop insurance coverage to eligible producers, while the other segment of ERP is for crops not covered by federal crop insurance. No ERP program has been announced for the 2025 crop year at this point; however, the crop loss data that is gathered from the local FSA offices and through crop insurance agents is important to determine the need for an ERP program. Payments through the ERP program are typically made after the crop year has been completed and all crop insurance claims have been filed.
FSA low-interest loans
Producers that are in counties with a primary USDA disaster declaration, including contiguous counties, are eligible for emergency loans through local FSA offices to help them recover from physical and production losses due to natural disasters. These loans can be used be used to replace buildings and equipment, for feed and farm input purchases, and for other farm-related expenses. Many times the emergency loans are at lower interest rates than regular loans and can be amortized for more than one year.
It is likely that many counties in Minnesota, North and South Dakota will be included in disaster declarations in the coming weeks, which will make farmers and ranchers in those areas eligible for the FSA emergency loans. Farmers that had damage to grain storage and handling facilities could also utilize the low-interest Farm Storage Facility Loan program to finance repair or replacement costs for those facilities. For more details on the emergency loans and FSFL loans, as well as the loan requirements, producers should contact their local FSA office.
Report losses to local FSA offices
The local FSA office is the point site to gather disaster-related information and loss data for USDA to determine the need for additional USDA disaster programs. It also important for farmers to report any lost crop acreage, loss of livestock, and physical damage to property from the heavy rainfall and severe storms to local FSA offices, so that they can do an accurate assessment of the damage and put together a request for disaster assistance.
FSA and crop insurance deadlines
Once the crop is planted and we get into mid-Summer, it is easy to overlook some important deadlines at Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices, crop insurance, and other important deadlines. Missing some of these deadlines can be a costly mistake, as many of the program payments and benefits are linked to compliance with these deadlines. Following is a couple of those important deadlines:
FSA acreage certification
The 2025 crop acreage reporting deadline for all spring-planted crops is Monday, July 15 at local FSA offices. Farmers are required to report their 2025 crop acres of corn, soybeans, spring wheat, and other spring-planted crops to FSA offices. This includes crop acreage of hemp and wild rice. The only exception is for crops that were planted after the deadline. In that case, farmers have an additional 15 days to report their crop acreage. Producers also need to report any 2025 prevented planted crop acres to the FSA office by the July 15 deadline. Fall-seeded small grain crops must be reported by November 15, 2024. Farm operators can certify their crop acreage electronically to the FSA office by utilizing “farmers.gov portal”. This FSA portal also allows farmers to have the ability for online farm program enrollment and data submission. For more information on setting up an FSA portal, farmers should contact their local FSA office or go the FSA website at: https://www.farmers.gov/.
Crop insurance acreage reporting deadline
The 2025 crop acreage reporting deadline for corn, soybeans, and other spring-planted crops with local crop insurance agents is also Monday, July 15. Farmers are required to report their 2025 crop acres in order to maintain their 2025 crop insurance coverage. This is extremely important in 2025 due to the strong crop insurance guarantees for corn and soybeans, along with the potential for crop production issues in some areas due to late planting, flooding, and other weather-related issues in some areas. Similar to FSA, any 2025 prevented planted acres need to be reported for crop insurance purposes, as well as any crop acres that were replanted this year.
Farm and Rural Stress Assistance
The combination of continued low grain prices, together with the likely crop loss from the recent flooding and natural disasters, is likely to result in reduced farm income levels for some farmers in 2025. This is likely to increase the mental stress level for many farmers and farm families. There are some good resources available to assist farm and rural families in the Upper Midwest States that have been impacted:
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has rural and mental health assistance resources available at 833-600-2670 or https://www.mda.state.mn.us/about/mnfarmerstress.
The North Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources has rural and mental health assistance resources available at: https://www.ndda.nd.gov/. The NDSU Extension Service also has some excellent resources available at: https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub.
The South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources has rural and mental health assistance resources available at: https://danr.sd.gov/.
Kent Thiesse is a Farm Management Analyst and writes the weekly "Focus on Ag" column. Contact him by phone at (507) 381-7960 or by email at [email protected].