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Ranchers Across America · 2021 to the Present
You hauled the hay. They changed the math. A national record of how USDA livestock and drought programs treated ranchers in every state since 2021. Never told, never triggered, or paid short? This is about you.
Got a denial or a reduced payment recently? Do not wait on us. You generally have 30 days from the day you first received the decision to ask for an appeal. Missing it can end your right to challenge the decision, including in court. Read the appeal section of your letter today. How appeals work
Here Is What Happened
Four facts from USDA's own records, 2021 to 2026. Read them, then decide whether it happened to you.
$3.75
was $6.60 in 2021
USDA's ELAP rate for hauling feed fell from $6.60 per mile per truckload in 2021 to $3.75 in 2026. Over the same years, the rate for hauling water went up 57 percent.
The rate is not what a rancher is paid per mile; other limits apply. Notice ELAP-27 · All rates
$35.66
monthly feed-cost benchmark, was $58.12 in 2023
The monthly feed-cost benchmark fell from $58.12 in 2023 to $35.66 in 2026. Because LFP generally pays 60 percent of that amount, the corresponding one-month payment rate fell from $34.87 to $21.40 per adult cow, a reduction of $13.47.
1 for every 9.3
1 ELAP award record for every 9.3 LFP award records
In fiscal year 2023, federal spending records show 22,002 ELAP award records nationwide and 204,190 LFP award records. These are award transactions, not individual producers, and the ELAP total includes every ELAP loss category, not only feed hauling.
Not Public
the calculator county offices use
Since May 2024, USDA has required county offices to use a feed-needs calculator kept on an internal USDA site that is not available to the public. A separate 2021 estimator for producers is still online.
Notice ELAP-21, Part 2 E · ELAP records
Did you haul feed, lose grass, or never hear about any of this?
See what USDA paid ranchers in your state, then decide whether to add your story.
Find your stateEvery State. Every County Office.
These programs are run nationally and carried out by USDA state and county offices in every state. Tap your state to start.
Small states and territories:
Federal spending records (USAspending.gov) by federal fiscal year, October to September. Payments are records, not individual producers. ELAP figures cover every kind of ELAP loss, not only hauling. County counts: FSA payment files, calendar 2022 to 2025. Table and method.
Pick a state to see what USDA paid ranchers there.
How Ranchers Got Shorted · The First Failure
For decades, federal farm policy built a deeper and more dependable safety net around major commodity crops through commodity programs, subsidized crop insurance and revenue protection. [7 U.S.C. 9011 to 9019] [7 U.S.C. 1508]
Ranchers received assistance too, but much of their protection has remained disaster driven, trigger dependent and tied to formulas that do not measure what it actually costs to replace lost grass or keep cattle alive through drought.
LFP values lost grazing through a fixed quantity of corn at a national historical price and then applies a 60% factor. [7 U.S.C. 9081(c)(3)] ELAP uses national transportation rates, eligibility limits and calculations that do not directly measure the producer's actual expense. [7 CFR 1416.110] Meanwhile, the cost of land, pasture, hay, freight, labor and equipment has kept rising.
Federal policy has supported commodity crop production and income for decades, yet USDA uses corn as the national stand-in for a rancher's grazing loss. The formula does not directly measure the regional cost of grass, pasture, hay, freight, labor or keeping a cow herd through drought. A rancher does not replace dead pasture by buying 15.7 pounds of corn. He replaces it with grass, leased pasture, hay, supplemental feed, trucking, labor and equipment. LFP does not directly price any of those.
27.6 million
beef cows in the United States on January 1, 2026, the smallest beef cow herd since 1961.
Our view: no one should act surprised that producers have struggled to stay in business when the livestock safety net does not measure their real costs.
Source: USDA NASS, Cattle (Jan. 30, 2026). Comparison to 1961: USDA ERS, Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook (Feb. 2026).
Not About One Administration
This is not an accusation against one President, one Secretary of Agriculture or one political party. These problems developed across numerous administrations, under both parties, since Congress created these livestock disaster programs in the 2008 farm bill. Ranchers Got Shorted is examining the institution, the formulas, the drought triggers and the conduct of national, state and county offices. It is not a partisan political argument.
2021 Through the Present
This project covers USDA livestock and drought assistance from 2021 through the present. We want to know what ranchers knew at the time, not only what they know today.
ELAP and LFP existed before 2021. In September 2021, USDA added help with the cost of hauling feed to livestock during drought. That makes 2021 the starting point for asking whether ranchers were told about the new assistance, whether state and county offices promoted it, and whether ranchers understood they could apply.
When USDA introduced ELAP feed transportation assistance in 2021, did your county or state office tell you? Were you aware of ELAP or LFP during the drought years of 2021 and 2022? Did you learn about the programs in time to apply, or after your losses or filing deadlines had passed?
Awareness today does not fix a failure to notify ranchers when assistance first became available.
By the time more ranchers knew about ELAP feed transportation assistance, USDA had changed the calculations and sharply cut the national transportation rate.
| Program year | Rate per mile per truckload | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $6.60 | FSA release |
| 2022 | $6.44 | ELAP-11 |
| 2023 | $6.60 | ELAP-15 |
| 2024 | $6.60 | 1-ELAP handbook |
| 2025 | $3.50 | ELAP-25 |
| 2026 | $3.75 | ELAP-27 |
We want to know whether those reductions made the resulting assistance too small to justify the paperwork, documentation and application process.
As producers became more aware of the program, USDA reduced the transportation rate and imposed additional limits that may have made the benefit economically inadequate or discouraged producers from applying. We are collecting evidence to learn how many producers stopped applying, or never applied, because the expected payment no longer justified the time, paperwork and expense.
Whether ranchers knew the programs existed in 2021 and 2022.
Whether USDA state and county offices gave timely notice.
Whether later rate cuts, calculation changes and paperwork rules discouraged ranchers from taking part.
A producer's awareness in 2026 does not tell us whether USDA properly informed that producer when the assistance first became available five years earlier.
The Second Failure
Across administrations, ranchers report being left without timely notice that their county triggered, that a program became available, that a deadline was approaching or that USDA changed the calculation controlling their payment. They report receiving checks without usable written calculations and struggling to learn why neighboring counties or producers were treated differently. And from 2024, county offices ran feed hauling claims through an internal calculator producers could not open (Notice ELAP-21).
Transparency means more than publishing an ELAP formula. It covers what each of these offices did, and when:
Ranchers have reported that USDA offices actively promote some row crop programs through meetings, newsletters, sponsors and direct outreach, while giving little or no comparable notice when LFP, ELAP or another livestock program becomes available.
We are documenting this nationally. We have not concluded it happened in every county. We are collecting evidence on how often it occurs and whether livestock producers get equal notice. If your office did, or did not, tell you, that is part of the record.
Find What Happened to You
You do not need to know the program's name. ELAP, LFP and the Drought Monitor are the three main areas. LIP, ELRP and NAP follow.
Not sure which one it was? Tell us anyway. Pick "Not sure" on the form and we will sort it out with you.
ELAP · Hauling Feed and Water
Tap any one. Every line links to the USDA document it comes from.
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$6.60 a mile in 2021. $3.50 in 2025.
Tap for the record
USDA's national rate was $6.60 per mile in 2021, 2023 and 2024 ($6.44 in 2022). For 2025, USDA cut the rate to $3.50 per mile per truckload. For 2026 it raised the reduced rate by only 25 cents, to $3.75, still about 43% below $6.60.
Sources: 1-ELAP (Rev. 1) Am. 2, para. 110 A; Notice ELAP-25; Notice ELAP-27; all six years
39 pounds of hay a day per animal unit, whatever size your cows are.
Tap for the record
USDA caps the feed it will pay to haul at 39 pounds of hay or forage per animal unit per day. USDA derived the 39 pound figure from an estimated 26 pounds of hay multiplied by 150%. USDA has not adequately explained why one general animal unit figure should control heavier cows, lactating cows, bulls and operations feeding forage of different quality.
Notice ELAP-21 attributes the underlying research to Oklahoma State University. The January 2025 Federal Register rule cites an Ohio State University web article instead.
Sources: Notice ELAP-21, Part 2; 90 FR 5493, 5494 and note 9; 7 CFR 1416.110(q)
From 2024 on, your county ran your claim through a calculator you could not open.
Tap for the record
ELAP-21 directed county offices to use a feed transportation calculator housed on USDA's internal SharePoint. The working calculator was not made publicly available to producers.
The notice said the detailed review of feed needs was needed only when the county committee determined that claimed truckloads were increased above what was normal for the county. The public estimator USDA released in 2021 is a different tool: it takes the producer's truckload count as given.
Sources: Notice ELAP-21, Part 2 E; FSA release on the 2021 producer tool (Oct. 13, 2021); the producer tool workbook
The rule came in January 2025. It reached back to 2024.
Tap for the record
USDA introduced the 39 pound calculation in Notice ELAP-21 on May 7, 2024. USDA then placed the calculation in regulation on January 17, 2025 and expressly made the regulatory changes retroactive to the 2024 program year. ELAP-21 also allowed the calculator to be used in national spot checks of years before 2024.
Sources: Notice ELAP-21, Part 2 E; 90 FR 5493 (Jan. 17, 2025), Executive Order 12988 statement
Ranchers tell us: nobody would put it in writing.
Tap for the record
Ranchers report being told the county committee made the call, then being unable to get the reason, the calculation or the rule cited in writing. If that happened to you, your decision letter and any notes you kept matter.
What ranchers report to this project. Tell us yours.
Your neighbor got paid. You never heard of the program.
Tap for the record
In federal fiscal year 2023, federal spending records show 22,002 ELAP payment award records nationwide and 204,190 LFP award records, roughly one ELAP record for every nine LFP records. Award records are not the same as individual producers, and the ELAP count covers every kind of ELAP loss, not only feed hauling. Whether you applied or never knew you could, we want to hear it.
Source: USAspending.gov award counts, Assistance Listings 10.110 and 10.109, FY2022 to FY2025
ELAP · The Record
These are USDA's own numbers, from USDA's own documents.
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Dollars per mile per truckload, by program year. This is the rate in the formula, not what a rancher was paid per mile. Sources: FSA release (2021), ELAP-11 (2022), ELAP-15 (2023), 1-ELAP (Rev. 1) Am. 2 (2024), ELAP-25 (2025), ELAP-27 (2026). Table.
Change in USDA's ELAP hauling rates, 2021 to 2026. Same USDA program. Opposite rate movements. Water went from $0.07 to $0.11 a gallon; feed from $6.60 to $3.75 a mile. Sources: Notice ELAP-25, Notice ELAP-27, Notice ELAP-15.
The published rate was not what USDA paid a producer per mile. Before a check was cut, USDA still applied:
Sources: 7 CFR 1416.110(n), (o) and (q); 7 CFR 1416.103(d)(6); 7 CFR 1416.109; Notice ELAP-15
1 : 9
ELAP award records to LFP award records nationwide, FY2023. Records, not producers
LFP · Lost Grazing
LFP is supposed to pay ranchers for grazing lost to drought. The formula is the same in every state, and it never asks what it cost you to replace that grass.
LFP does not calculate what it costs to replace lost grass in a producer's local market. It uses a fixed corn quantity, a national historical corn price, a 60% factor and the lesser of the livestock or carrying capacity calculation.
15.7 Pounds of Corn a Day
For purposes of calculating the monthly feed cost, the statutory formula assigns an adult beef cow a feed grain equivalent of 15.7 pounds of corn per day. That is a payment benchmark, not a finding that every cow actually eats that ration.
At a National Corn Price, Looking Back
The price is the higher of the 12 month or 24 month national average corn price before March 1. It is not the price of hay where you live during your drought.
Times 60 Percent
The program pays 60 percent of that monthly feed figure. The other 40 percent is yours from the start.
Capped Twice
The payment is figured on your cattle or on the county's normal carrying capacity for your acres, whichever comes out smaller.
For as Many Months as the Trigger Allows
How many monthly payments you get depends on how deep and how long the Drought Monitor showed drought in your county during the grazing season.
That formula is written into federal law. A county office can follow it to the letter and the check can still fall far short of what it cost you to get through the drought.
Oklahoma Case Study
This case study shows how the national LFP formula performed against Oklahoma hay and trucking costs. Results will vary by state, region, forage type, distance and local market. Per adult beef cow, per qualifying month. LFP payment is 60 percent of the monthly feed cost in 1-LFP Am. 4 (2021, 2022), Am. 5 (2023), Am. 6 (2024), Notice LFP-5 (2025) and Notice LFP-7 (2026). Replacement cost is our estimate from USDA figures: the NASS Oklahoma "other hay" price, 26 pounds of dry matter a day with 15 percent feeding loss, hauled 100 miles at USDA's own ELAP hauling rate. Full table and method.
26-47%
of the estimated cost of replacing a month of grazing with delivered hay that LFP covered in Oklahoma, every year 2021 to 2026
15.7 lb
of corn a day per adult cow. The formula never looks at hay, freight or your local market
2026
Congress changed the drought triggers starting this year. The corn formula and the 60% factor did not change
The formula is set out in full at 7 U.S.C. 9081(c)(3). None of the items above appear in it.
The Livestock Indemnity Program, written into the same section of the law, pays on the market value of the animals lost and lets USDA consider regional price premiums. LFP is tied to one national corn price.
LFP
ELAP
Same drought, two programs, two different ways to come up short. A rancher can be shorted under both.
The U.S. Drought Monitor
The U.S. Drought Monitor publishes a weekly geographic assessment of drought severity. USDA programs use those mapped classifications and their own program rules to decide county eligibility and payment levels. For LFP, the trigger decides whether you qualify and how many months you are paid. It also sets drought eligibility under ELAP.
Sources: U.S. Drought Monitor; FSA LFP eligibility maps
Drought must fall in the county's normal grazing period. D2 is severe drought, D3 extreme, D4 exceptional. Source: Notice LFP-8, section 4 A.
Starting with 2026, severe drought (D2) triggers sooner. The D3 and D4 triggers did not change, and neither did the formula behind each month's payment. Sources: Pub. L. 119-21; 91 FR 42313 (July 9, 2026); Notice LFP-8, section 3 B.
Ranchers have raised serious concerns about whether the Drought Monitor's timing, geography and classifications accurately reflect conditions on the ground.
We have not reached a conclusion. A separate research project is under way, and we are gathering evidence from every state. Your experience is part of it.
Was your pasture gone before your county triggered, or did it never trigger at all? Pick "Drought Monitor or drought-trigger problem" on the form.
Tell us what happenedLIP · ELRP · NAP
These are smaller parts of the picture so far, but they matter. If you were denied, reduced, delayed, treated differently than a neighbor, or never told, we want to hear it.
LIP
Pays for livestock deaths above normal mortality caused by things like extreme weather, certain diseases, and attacks by animals the federal government reintroduced or protects. It can also cover animals sold at a reduced price because of those events. By law it pays 75 percent of market value for weather and disease losses and 100 percent for predator losses.
ELRP
Supplemental relief Congress funded for livestock producers after particular disaster years. It has leaned on other programs: for 2021 drought, the first round was figured from each rancher's 2021 LFP payment, and ranchers did not have to apply. A problem in LFP or in a drought trigger can carry straight into it.
NAP
Covers crops that federal crop insurance does not, including forage grown for livestock and native forage. You apply and pay a service fee by a deadline for each crop. Its usefulness to a traditional cow-calf operation can be limited, but if you carried it and were denied or cut, tell us.
State and Regional Case Studies
This project began with ranchers in three states. Their figures are an early case study, not the limit of the project. As reports come in from other states, we will add state and regional comparisons.
County weeks meeting the ELAP drought test (D2 in any part of the county for 8 weeks in a row, or any D3 or D4), all 77 Oklahoma counties, by calendar year. Our reconstruction from weekly U.S. Drought Monitor data, not FSA's determination of record. Table and method.
Oklahoma's reported ELAP payment totals peaked in program year 2024, while qualifying drought exposure peaked in 2022. Totals cover every kind of ELAP payment, not only feed hauling. Program year 2024 counts payments in the calendar 2024 and 2025 files; later payments may add to it. From FSA payment files. Table, payment dates and method.
18
Kansas and Missouri counties that received more than $250,000 in LFP drought payments in calendar 2022 to 2025 but no ELAP payments of any kind. This does not show whether ranchers there applied.
74% fewer
distinct Oklahoma ELAP payee names in program year 2024 than in 2022 (3,813 to 978), as average payments rose. Program year 2024 counted through the calendar 2025 files
USDA Records and Calculations
Across all five programs, the same question keeps coming up: was the rancher ever shown how USDA arrived at the number, in time to question it?
The working feed transportation calculator county offices were told to use sits on USDA's internal SharePoint and was not made publicly available to producers.
USDA published how it got to 39 pounds (26 pounds of hay times 150%) but has not adequately explained why one figure should fit every animal and every forage.
No notice published the 2024 ELAP or LFP payment rates. Both appear in handbook amendments: the LFP rates in one dated February 5, 2025, after the program year ended.
FSA's public payment files show who was paid, but not how many producers applied, were reduced or were denied.
When you deal with your county office, ask for the decision, the rule it relied on and the calculation in writing. Write down who you spoke with and the date.
Your Appeal Rights
This site cannot file anything for you and does not stop any clock. Here is what does.
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Your USDA adverse decision letter should tell you your appeal options and how long you have. Follow the instructions in your letter.
A National Appeals Division appeal request generally must be filed within 30 days after you first receive the decision, be personally signed, explain why you believe the decision is wrong and include a copy of the adverse decision if you have it. Keep proof showing when and how it was filed.
You do not need a lawyer to appeal. Federal rules let a person you authorize in writing represent you, including farm advocates.
Decision letters, your application forms, hauling receipts, scale tickets, fuel receipts, and any notes from calls with the county office. Your paperwork is the evidence.
Common Questions
An independent national project, run by Friends of RGS, LLC, that collects the experiences of cattle producers with USDA livestock and drought assistance programs (ELAP, LFP, LIP, ELRP and NAP) and the U.S. Drought Monitor triggers behind them, from 2021 to the present. It is not affiliated with USDA, any political party or any law firm.
No. The project covers ranchers in every state and U.S. territory. Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri figures appear on the site only as an early regional case study.
No. The project also wants to hear from ranchers who were never told a program existed, who learned about it after a deadline, who stopped applying, and who were satisfied with the help they got.
USDA's national rate used to calculate ELAP feed hauling assistance is $3.50 per mile per truckload for 2025 and $3.75 for 2026. It was $6.60 in 2021, 2023 and 2024, and $6.44 in 2022. The rate is not what a producer is paid per mile: the payment also applies a 60 percent factor (90 percent for eligible underserved producers), leaves out the first 25 miles of each load, counts only miles above normal and stops at 1,000 miles per load.
Sources: Notice ELAP-25; Notice ELAP-27; 7 CFR 1416.110; all six years
Starting with program year 2024, USDA limits ELAP feed transportation to the feed needed at 39 pounds of hay or forage per animal unit per day (26 pounds of hay multiplied by 150 percent), from the start of the drought to the end of the program year. Loads above that amount are not eligible. USDA introduced it in Notice ELAP-21 on May 7, 2024 and placed it in regulation on January 17, 2025, effective retroactively for the 2024 program year.
Sources: Notice ELAP-21; 90 FR 5493
By a formula written into federal law: 15.7 pounds of corn per day for an adult beef cow, at the higher of the 12 month or 24 month national average corn price before March 1, times 30 days, gives a monthly feed cost. LFP pays 60 percent of that, figured on the producer's livestock or on the county's normal carrying capacity, whichever is smaller. The number of monthly payments depends on the Drought Monitor rating. For 2026 the monthly feed cost for one adult beef cow is $35.66, so the monthly payment is $21.40.
Sources: 7 U.S.C. 9081(c)(3); Notice LFP-7
For LFP, a county qualifies on the Drought Monitor rating during the normal grazing period. Through 2025, severe drought (D2) had to last 8 weeks in a row for one monthly payment. From 2026, D2 for 4 weeks in a row earns one month and D2 for 7 of the last 8 weeks earns two. Any extreme (D3) or exceptional (D4) rating earns three to five months. Ranchers have raised concerns about the Drought Monitor's timing and geography, and the project is gathering evidence; it has not reached a conclusion.
Sources: Notice LFP-8; U.S. Drought Monitor
Generally 30 days after you first receive the adverse decision to request a National Appeals Division hearing. The request must be in writing and personally signed, explain why you believe the decision is wrong, and include a copy of the decision if you have it. Follow the instructions in your decision letter, which may also list other options.
Sources: 7 CFR 11.6(b)
No. The form does not file an appeal, protect any right or extend any deadline. If you have a recent decision letter, follow its appeal instructions right away.
Friends of RGS, LLC, which runs the project, and its legal counsel. Submissions are stored in the United States, kept for three years and never sold.
Sources: Privacy page
Start Here
You do not need to have been denied or underpaid to take part. Pick the short survey if you only have a couple of minutes, or tell us the whole story if something went wrong.
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Who We Are
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A Statement From Friends of RGS
From federal fiscal year 2022 through 2025, USDA paid nearly $5.8 billion through two livestock disaster programs alone: $4.26 billion through the Livestock Forage Disaster Program and $1.51 billion through ELAP, the program that also pays for hauling feed and water. That is public money, distributed by the Farm Service Agency through state and county offices in every state. The public has a right to know whether it reached the ranchers it was meant for, on the terms the law set, and whether those ranchers were ever told it existed.
By January 2026 the nation's beef cow herd stood at 27.6 million head, the smallest since 1961. No single decision did that. But the record shows several conditions arriving at once: a grazing formula priced in corn instead of grass or hay; a feed hauling rate cut 43 percent between 2021 and 2026; drought triggers that decided who qualified and for how long; a calculator county offices are required to use that the public cannot see; and open questions about whether ranchers were told the help existed when they needed it. Each piece may have its own explanation. Together they formed a perfect storm for the families raising this country's cattle.
Friends of RGS was formed to answer one question with evidence: did the system work? We are not asking anyone to take our word for it. We are building a national record, state by state and county by county, from USDA's own notices, handbooks, regulations and payment files, and from the first-hand accounts of the ranchers who lived it. Every figure on this site links to its source and method. Federal records are identified, and our calculations, reconstructions and case studies are clearly labeled and downloadable.
Oversight is how a public program earns trust. Programs this large deserve management that can be measured, rules a rancher can read, calculations a rancher can check, and notice that reaches the gravel road as surely as the county seat. Where the record shows the system worked, we will say so. Where it shows gaps, inconsistencies, or failures of management and oversight, we will document them, add them up, and put them in front of the public and the officials responsible for overseeing these programs.
This is not about one political party or one administration. It is about whether an agency trusted with billions of dollars in livestock disaster assistance can show its work and follow its own rules.
Ranchers are required to document every load, every mile, every head, every receipt and every date. Their applications can be reduced or denied if one document is missing or one deadline is missed. USDA should be held to the same standard.
If USDA requires complete records from ranchers, USDA must provide complete records to ranchers. That means publishing the controlling rules and rates, making calculations available, explaining decisions in writing, applying standards consistently, documenting when and why a rule changed, and preserving an audit trail showing how each decision was reached.
USDA should not demand exact documentation from a producer while relying on internal calculators, unpublished methods, late-issued rates or unexplained changes that the producer cannot review.
We are not asking USDA for special treatment. We are asking USDA to follow its own rules, disclose its calculations and meet the same standard of documentation and accountability that it requires from every rancher.
Ranchers are required to show their work. USDA must show its work too.
Friends of RGS, LLC
Payments: USAspending.gov, FY2022 to FY2025; ELAP totals include every kind of ELAP loss. Herd: USDA NASS, Cattle (Jan. 30, 2026); smallest since 1961 per USDA ERS, LDP-M-380. Rates and calculator: Sources and Methods.
An independent national project collecting the experiences of cattle producers across the United States with USDA livestock and drought assistance programs and the Drought Monitor triggers behind them, from 2021 to the present. Run by Friends of RGS, LLC. To reach us, including to correct or remove what you sent, email [email protected].
Every source we rely on is listed on the Sources and Methods page. How we handle what you send is on the privacy page.
Ranchers are required to show their work.
USDA must show its work too.