Aubrey Bettencourt: Emergency Livestock Assistance Program Available for Losses in CA Fires
By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor
“It’s been a crash course for me,” said Aubrey Bettencourt, a third generation farmer in California. In November she was appointed by the trump administration to serve as the executive director of the United States Department of Agriculture’s California Farm Service Agency. She is speaking about certain FSA programs for livestock. It would be applicable to all states across the country.
“Whether we are dealing with the emergency livestock assistance program, ELAP,is what we call that,” she said. “ELAP provides financial assistance for eligible producers for certain diseases, adverse weather events, wildfires, and more. These are great programs that we need, especially with some of the disasters California is dealing with.”
She was very close to the situation in southern California with all of the fires, that did affect some cattle. “Any cattleman or woman who is having trouble should get a hold of the FSA office immediately to get into the system to be matched up to the programs such as ELAP,” she said.
“We also have a livestock indemnity programs, so if there is unfortunately a loss of livestock, we can definitely help you with that,” said Bettencourt. ELAP also has a forage program that helps if you have lost the ability to graze.
There are also other programs along the lines of secondary insurance for noninsurable crops that can be purchased ahead of time. “In case there is a disaster, we can help cover some of the costs if you are not able to graze or you are not able to care for cattle in some capacity because of the loss or a disaster of some sort,” she said.
“I would encourage you not only to reach out to our offices, but a lot of the really good trade associations have great information on this as well,” said Bettencourt.
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