Producers who were forced to destroy pigs, chickens, and turkeys last year due to the pandemic are eligible for federal compensation ranging from 32 cents per chick to $258.57 for a heavyweight hog, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Tuesday. The new Pandemic Livestock Indemnity Program (PLIP) is the latest in coronavirus relief programs that have paid $24.3 billion to farmers since May 2020.
Payments will cover 80 percent of the market value of the animals plus the cost of killing them and disposing of the carcasses. There is no payment limit for PLIP, said the USDA, suggesting big operators with large losses might receive mammoth amounts of aid. The USDA’s major coronavirus relief programs have a limit of $250,000 per person or $750,000 per business.
Covid-19 outbreaks slowed or temporarily halted production at U.S. slaughterhouses last spring, forcing some producers to euthanize animals because they could not find buyers for them. The National Pork Producers Council, with members throughout the pork industry, said that while there was no exact tally for culling, “it was significant as farmers were forced to take this humane step due to overcrowding on their farms.” A poultry trade group said it did not have an estimate of losses.
“This targeted assistance will help livestock and poultry producers that were among the hardest hit by the pandemic alleviate some financial burden from these losses,” said Vilsack in recorded remarks for a pork industry conference. PLIP covers hog and poultry “depopulations” from March 1 to Dec. 26, 2020.
In addition, the USDA set aside $50 million for small hog producers, who, it said, were hit by “a significant drop” in spot or negotiated prices from April through September 2020. Details of the aid to small producers are expected later this summer.
Funding for PLIP comes from a coronavirus relief package enacted at the end of 2020. It authorized an estimated $3 billion in aid for several livestock sectors, including cattle producers, contract livestock growers, dairy farmers, and producers forced to euthanize animals.
“The Agriculture committees provided this assistance in a bipartisan manner in December as supporting these producers was a priority, and I am pleased to see that, starting next week, assistance will finally begin to arrive,” said House Agriculture chairman David Scott.
Signup for PLIP will run from July 20 to Sept. 17. To be eligible, producers must have an average adjusted gross income of less than $900,000 and have owned the animals when they were destroyed. Because of the income and ownership requirements, processors and contract growers are not eligible.
Some $1.15 billion was paid to hog farmers through the two iterations of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) since last May. Those payments were aimed at the loss in value caused by lower commodity prices.
The USDA web page for PLIP is available here.
For the CFAP home page, click here.