Primary sources
The FSA handbooks, federal rules, and oversight reports that govern the Livestock Forage Disaster Program — archived here so the exact versions cited in the project's analyses stay accessible even after the agencies supersede or remove them.
Federal program guidance is a moving target: FSA’s handbook library links only the current amendment of each handbook, and superseded versions can vanish from agency servers without notice. Because the project’s analyses cite specific amendments, the exact documents are archived here, alongside links to the originals where the agencies still host them.
FSA HANDBOOK
Amendment 37 · Approved April 25, 2019
The predecessor handbook that governed LFP (alongside ELAP and LIP) from 2011 until 1-LFP superseded it in 2019 — the policy under which the earlier determinations in the project's FOIA archives were made.
FSA HANDBOOK
Base issuance · Approved September 11, 2019
The base issuance of FSA's national policy handbook for LFP, directing state and county offices on eligibility, drought-trigger determinations, and payment procedure for 2019 and subsequent years.
FSA HANDBOOK
Amendment 2 · Approved July 14, 2020
The 2020 program-year update — sets 2020 payment rates, adds acreage-tolerance policy, and requires an FSA-578 acreage report on file before an LFP application.
FSA HANDBOOK
Amendment 3 · Approved May 3, 2021
The 2021 program-year update, setting 2021 payment rates and clarifying which irrigated grazing acreage qualifies for LFP.
FSA HANDBOOK
Amendment 4 · Approved June 15, 2022
The 2022 program-year update — clarifies the calculation of the qualifying-drought beginning date, limits covered livestock to weaned animals, adds millet as an eligible small grain, and clarifies beginning dates for newly established or amended grazing periods.
FSA HANDBOOK
Amendment 5 · Approved April 5, 2023
The 2023 program-year update — notable for formally incorporating the US Drought Monitor's FSA Eligibility Tool into county-eligibility procedure.
FSA HANDBOOK
Amendment 6 · Approved February 5, 2025
Refines application-deadline policy and the drought definitions used in eligibility determinations — the amendment of 1-LFP most cited in this project's analyses.
FSA HANDBOOK
Amendment 7 · Approved August 12, 2025
The current amendment of 1-LFP — sets 2025 payment rates, updates LFP application deadlines, and requires grazing periods and carrying capacities established for LFP to match those established for NAP as reflected in the National Crop Table.
FSA HANDBOOK
Base issuance · Approved December 22, 2022
The companion automation handbook — how county offices enter, process, and pay LFP applications in FSA's software systems, the pipeline through which eligibility and payment data actually flow.
FSA HANDBOOK
Base issuance · Approved April 29, 2025
The successor automation handbook covering LFP application processing in FSA systems for program year 2025 onward.
FSA HANDBOOK
Amendment 26 · Approved June 16, 2026
The current NAP policy handbook. Its subparagraph 277 F requires State Offices to annually gather the most current documentation for carrying capacities and grazing periods — the authority behind the annual Normal Grazing Period review that LFP inherits.
FSA NOTICE
Approved August 10, 2017
The notice defining the temperature-threshold methodology behind county Normal Grazing Periods — the procedure this project's nClimGrid reanalysis reproduces under current climate normals. Administratively obsolete since 2018, but foundational to how today's grazing periods were set.
FSA NOTICE
Approved April 22, 2026
The most recent LFP notice, setting 2026 daily animal-unit feed rates — notable for what it does not contain. It applies the pre-OBBBA drought triggers, evidence that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's eligibility changes remained unimplemented into the 2026 grazing season.
FEDERAL REGISTER RULE
74 FR 46665 · September 11, 2009
The original regulation implementing LFP under the 2008 Farm Bill — the framework that governed the earliest program years (2008–2011) in the project's eligibility archives.
FEDERAL REGISTER RULE
77 FR 41248 · July 13, 2012
Established 7 CFR part 759 and the fast-track process by which US Drought Monitor ratings — D2 for eight consecutive weeks, or any D3–D4 — trigger nearly automatic Secretarial drought disaster designations.
FEDERAL REGISTER RULE
79 FR 21086 · RIN 0560-AI21 · April 14, 2014
The foundational regulation implementing the 2014 Farm Bill provision that made LFP a permanent, standing disaster program — establishing the modern framework for drought-based grazing-loss payments, retroactive to October 2011.
GAO REPORT
GAO-14-549R · April 29, 2014
GAO's Congressional Review Act assessment of the 2014 final rule, classifying it as a major rule and estimating annual disaster assistance payments of roughly $502 million.
FEDERAL REGISTER RULE
83 FR 49459 · RIN 0560-AH69 · October 2, 2018
Implements the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 changes — removes payment limits for LIP and TAP, sets a combined $125,000 annual limit for LFP and ELAP, and reopens the 2017–2018 application periods.
FEDERAL REGISTER RULE
87 FR 19465 · April 4, 2022
Created ELRP — expedited drought relief computed directly from producers' 2021 LFP payment data, the first of the LFP "top-up" programs that now recur alongside the base program.
FEDERAL REGISTER RULE
88 FR 66361 · September 27, 2023
The second ELRP round, again computed from LFP program data — this time for 2022 grazing losses.
FEDERAL REGISTER RULE
90 FR 22614 · May 29, 2025
The third ELRP round, paying eligible producers a percentage top-up of their gross 2023 and 2024 LFP payments — evidence of how central LFP data have become to emergency livestock relief delivery.
STATUTE
Public Law 119-21, § 10401 · 139 Stat. 101 · July 4, 2025
The enrolled law whose section 10401(b) rewrote LFP's drought triggers — D2 for 4 consecutive weeks (down from 8) now earns one monthly payment, and a new tier pays two payments for D2 in 7 of the previous 8 weeks. As of mid-2026, FSA had not yet implemented these changes in regulation or handbook.
FEDERAL REGISTER RULE
90 FR 44299 · September 15, 2025
Finalizes the ELRP 2023–2024 payments under the American Relief Act — and, for more than a year after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's enactment, the only Federal Register document from FSA citing the livestock disaster assistance statute it amended.
FEDERAL REGISTER RULE
91 FR 32880 · RIN 0560-AI86 · June 2, 2026
The first final rule implementing One Big Beautiful Bill Act provisions that touch LFP — conforming the payment-limitation regulations for program year 2026 and listing LFP among covered programs. It does not implement the Act's new drought triggers.
USDA ERS REPORT
ERR-329 · R. Aaron Hrozencik, Gabriela Perez-Quesada, and Kyle Bocinsky · January 2024
USDA Economic Research Service analysis of how LFP payments affect producers' stocking decisions, and how program expenditures are projected to grow under future climate conditions. Co-authored by this project's PI.
CRS REPORT
CRS R48082 · June 4, 2024
The Congressional Research Service's overview of LFP for Congress — how US Drought Monitor ratings and Normal Grazing Periods determine eligibility, how payments are calculated, and how program spending has grown in an era of persistent drought.
CRS REPORT
CRS R48245 · October 24, 2024
The Congressional Research Service's overview of NAP — the third disaster program this project studies, and the program whose grazing-period definitions LFP is required to match.
USDA REPORT
USDA · October 20, 2025
The white paper in which USDA committed to enacting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's LFP and LIP provisions — "higher and earlier payment rates to producers" — the department's only public statement of implementation intent to date.
FSA FACT SHEET
May 2025 edition · April 2024 edition also archived
FSA's current PDF edition of the producer-facing LFP fact sheet, still describing the pre-OBBBA eligibility triggers. The April 2024 edition is archived alongside it; legacy fact-sheet PDFs survive only on old.fsa.usda.gov.