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Oklahoma · Kansas · Missouri
You hauled the hay. They changed the math. USDA had a program to help pay for hauling feed through the drought. In the same drought counties, for every ten ranchers paid for lost grazing, about one was paid for hauling feed. If nobody told you, or your check came up 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 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
Does this sound like you?
Tap any one. Every line comes from a USDA document, and we link to it.
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They told you $6.60 a mile. The check came at $3.50.
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USDA's own 2021 estimator for the feed hauling benefit used $6.60 per loaded mile. In May 2025 the rate was cut to $3.50. For 2026 it is $3.75, still under half the original.
Source: FSA producer estimator (Oct 2021); Notice ELAP-25 (May 7, 2025); Notice ELAP-27 (2026)
39 pounds. Ask your county office where that number came from.
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Starting with the May 2024 notice, USDA limited the feed that counts to 39 pounds per head per day. USDA has not published where the figure comes from or why.
Source: Notice ELAP-21 (May 7, 2024); 90 FR 5493 (Jan 17, 2025)
They ran your claim through a calculator you are not allowed to see.
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County offices were required to run every feed hauling application through an eligibility calculator kept on an internal USDA site. Producers cannot open it. The public 2021 estimator is a different tool.
Source: Notice ELAP-21 (May 7, 2024)
You hauled hay in 2023. They wrote the rules in 2025.
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The feed limit and new documentation requirements were placed in the regulation on January 17, 2025 and applied to hauling that had already been done.
Source: 90 FR 5493 (Jan 17, 2025)
The county committee decided. Nobody would put it in writing.
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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.
Source: producer reports collected by this project. Tell us yours below.
Your neighbor got paid. You never heard of the program.
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In FY2023, across the same drought counties, roughly one rancher was paid under ELAP for every ten paid under the Livestock Forage Program. Same drought, same county office. Whether you applied or never knew you could, we want to hear it.
Source: FSA program payment data, FY2023
The Record
These are USDA's numbers. We only lined them up.
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Feed, forage and livestock hauling rate by program year. Sources: FSA producer estimator (2021); Notices ELAP-25 and ELAP-27.
Change in USDA's ELAP hauling rates, 2021 to 2026. Same notices, same signature, opposite directions.
County drought weeks that qualified for ELAP, all 77 Oklahoma counties combined, by program year. Source: US Drought Monitor via FSA eligibility.
ELAP payments to Oklahoma producers by program year. Source: FSA payment data. The money arrived two years after the worst of the drought.
47%
cut to the feed hauling rate in May 2025, from $6.60 to $3.50 a mile
Notice ELAP-25
39 lb
per head per day. The feed cap USDA applied and has never explained
Notice ELAP-21; 90 FR 5493
18
Kansas and Missouri counties with qualifying drought where no ELAP money was paid
FSA county payment data
1 in 10
ranchers paid for forage loss in drought counties were also paid under ELAP, FY2023
FSA payment data
Your Appeal Rights
This site cannot file anything for you and does not stop any clock. Here is what does.
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Every USDA decision letter tells you how to appeal and how long you have. Most give 30 days from the day you received it to ask for a hearing with the National Appeals Division.
A short written request that you want to appeal is enough to start. Keep a copy and proof of the date you sent it.
You do not need a lawyer to appeal. Federal rules let any person you authorize in writing represent you, including farm advocates who do this for free.
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.
Start Here
Two minutes. We will follow up with you personally. Nothing here is shared with anyone outside this project without your say-so.
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Who We Are
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An independent project collecting the experiences of cattle producers with USDA's drought feed hauling benefit in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, and putting those experiences on the record so they can be counted. Contact: [name], [phone], [email].