The USDA has announced a new disaster aid program to help producers offset losses from hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters.

Farm Service Agency Administrator Richard Fordyce says the Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+) is targeted to losses of crops that occurred in 2018 and 2019.  “We’ll pay 100 percent of 2018 losses,” he says.  “2019 losses, we’re going to begin by paying that at a 50 percent rate to continue to manage the funds’ availability of the program.”

The aid will also include payments for grain lost when bins flooded in Nebraska, Iowa, and the Dakotas earlier this year.

Fordyce says producers will need to meet with their local FSA office and report total lost bushels.  “We will pay 75 percent of 2018 prices,” he says.  “The 2018 Price Data is going to come from NASS’ 2018 price report.  We’re assuming most of that grain that was damage that was stored and was damaged was 2018 grain.”

WHIP+ also includes a new Milk Loss Program which will provide payments to eligible dairy operations that dumped or removed milk without compensation from the commercial milk market.  The milk losses must be due to a qualifying natural disaster in 2018 and 2019. 

More than $3 billion is available through the disaster relief package passed by Congress and then signed by President Trump in early June.   

Enrollment for WHIP+ will begin September 11.