November 7, 2006

Dairy Disaster Assistance Programme sign-up begins, USDA

The signup for the US$17 million 2005 Dairy Disaster Assistance Payment Programme (DDAP-II), began Nov 1, announced Teresa Lasseter, administrator of USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA).

The programme is aimed at helping dairy producers recover from last year's hurricane losses. DDAP-II is authorised by the Emergency Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2006.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history, shattering previous records on repeated occasions. Dairy producers suffered production losses from herd deaths, closed processing plants and damaged bulk tanks that caused milk to spoil, said Lasseter.

Eligible counties for DDAP-II, would be those declared a natural disaster by USDA secretary Mike Johanns or designated a major disaster or emergency by President George W. Bush for 2005 hurricanes Katrina, Ophelia, Wilma or Rita. Those contiguous to an approved county have also been declared eligible. However, the programme excluded those declared disaster areas by Hurricane Dennis as the legislation did not provide for disaster losses resulting from the particular hurricane.

Further, to be eligible, a dairy producer must have suffered dairy production and spoilage losses from August through December 2005 due to the 2005 hurricanes or related conditions, and suffered the losses in an eligible DDAP- II county.

The losses would be determined by the FSA using the established history of the operation's commercial production marketed and production dumped or not marketed during the applicable claim period.

The programme would provide for immediate payments, with eligible dairy operation's payment to be calculated by multiplying the payment rate, which varies with state, by the operation's total eligible losses.