 Because Marcie Swenningson and I am the State Executive Director for the North Dakota Farm Service Agency. My husband Greg and I have been raising cattle for over 40 years. So I understand how helpless and frustrated a producer feels during a blizzard or other extreme weather event when even though they have done their best to prepare, they still lose some of their livestock. It's difficult and it's stressful. Fortunately, the Farm Service Agency has livestock disaster programs available to help. The LIPP program is administered by the Farm Service Agency of USDA and it's part of the Farm Bill. It's intended to provide benefits to eligible livestock owners or contract growers for livestock deaths in excess of normal mortality if they're caused by certain conditions like adverse weather events, certain types of diseases, or attacks by animals reintroduced into the wild, which can include wolves. LIPP covers not only cattle, but poultry, swine, sheep, and other types of more non-traditional livestock. There are two important deadlines. First, the producer must notify the FSA County Office where the deaths occurred that they have a loss within 30 days of the event. That notice can be by email, fax, or a phone call if they can't travel to the office. The notice must include the date the loss became apparent, what type of event caused the loss, and the type of livestock that were lost. So for example, if on April 30th, a producer found five calves that had been buried under a snowbank, they could fax, phone, or email the FSA County Office within 30 days of finding the calves. They could say, I found some baby calves that had been buried under a snowbank on April 30th and the loss was from the blizzard that occurred on April 23rd. That would meet the requirement for the notice of loss. I strongly encourage producers to call the County Office because that way a program technician can make sure that they have all the information they need for the required notice of loss. The second important deadline is 60 calendar days after the end of the calendar year in which the losses occurred that you have to file that loss application. So in other words, for losses in calendar year 2022, the application must be filed by March 1st of 2023 in order to receive a payment. Again, I encourage producers not to wait until the deadline. They should fill out the application while the details are still fresh in their minds. The producer is going to need to be able to provide a beginning inventory number for the application. And this can come from several sources. Some examples are a balance sheet for the bank, loan records, vet records, or producer records like a computer spreadsheet. My husband has a computer list of all the cows that we'll have using their tag numbers so he can record documentation during calving. Then the producer will need to provide documentation of the date, quantity, type, and the weight of the losses. The best proof is pictures of the loss and you should have the date that the picture was taken. A non-family member or a vet can certify to the desk if they witness them in person. There are other forms of acceptable death documentation but I've listed the most common. If the producer indicates that an eligible disease killed the livestock, they will have to have a vet certification that actually names the cause of death. The other component that will have an impact on the loss payment is normal mortality. Every year a producer will typically lose a certain percentage of calves for lots of different reasons. This is normal mortality. Normal mortality has been determined for the different types of livestock covered by lip. In beef cattle, for example, normal mortality for a calf under 400 pounds is 4.6%. If a producer cannot provide records of their losses up to the adverse weather event, the county office will apply the normal mortality rate to the loss. Producers should be documenting with a picture and in their records when they lose any animal. Then, when severe weather occurs, they can produce those records and offset the percentage that the county office is going to apply. Every FSA county office has an elected county committee made up of producers. The completed application is then reviewed by the county committee and either approved or denied or maybe there's additional information that the county committee feels they need and so they'll send it back to the producer to gather additional documentation. If an application is ever denied, the producer has the right to appeal that decision. Very best source of information is their local FSA county office. Information is also available on the USDA website, www.fsa.usda.gov. There's a tab called Newsroom and then you can find fact sheets and the lip fact sheet would be there.