As Danny Munch, American Farm Bureau Federation Economist points out, this new ERP program is basically a revamped version of the old WHIP+ program and will provide six billion [dollars] in ad hoc disaster assistance for producers who experienced qualifying losses from severe weather events in 2020 and 2021. ERP includes losses from events like wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, freezes, derechos, and also drought under the D3 and D4 categories, as well as D2 after eight consecutive weeks. It also covers losses from related conditions that occurred concurrently to major disasters like smoke exposure during wildfires.

This is supposed to happen within the next few weeks. Producers will then have to return their completed and signed prefilled applications to their local FSA office and should expect to receive payments in June-July. Producers who did not have crop insurance or NAP coverage, did not receive an indemnity, or had an area-based policy, will not be sent a prefilled application.

Again, for those that qualify under phase one of ERP, they will be sent prefilled applications based on their existing FSA information. For those that don’t get a prefilled application, they unfortunately will have to wait for information on Phase Two of the program to be announced. Also, we have a few payment examples available on our Market Intel website for farmers to review and see how they might be able to benefit.

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The AGCO Agriculture Foundation (AAF), a private foundation with the vision to prevent and relieve hunger through sustainable agricultural development, today announced a $50,000 donation to the Kentucky Agriculture Disaster Relief Program, a joint effort of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Kentucky Farm Bureau Education Foundation, and the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD). The program seeks to bridge gaps in insurance coverage and other relief efforts for farming operations affected by the December 2021 storms in Western Kentucky.

Storms in late December 2021 caused significant damage to Western Kentucky communities and farms, including Mayfield, where AGCO dealership AgRevolution is located. The AAF and AGCO Corporation identified the Kentucky Agriculture Disaster Relief Program as an outreach effort that aligns with AAF’s farmer-focused community development initiative.

“AGCO and AAF are grateful for the opportunity to support Kentucky Farm Bureau’s relief program, which will provide vital assistance to farmers as they rebuild and recover in the months ahead,”

said Metti Richenhagen, director of the AGCO Agriculture Foundation.

The Kentucky Agriculture Disaster Relief program leverages a network of local farming retailers to provide access to eligible farmers of up to $1,500 of supplies, such as fencing, tools, hay, and livestock feed. It is designed to bridge gaps in insurance coverage for these vital items in a way that is efficient and trouble-free to farmers.

To further extend the donation from AAF, AGCO employees will also be able to participate in the program’s continuing fundraising efforts. 

“Following the tornado in Kentucky, many AGCO employees asked what they could do to offer their support to the individuals and communities in need. I’m pleased to offer them this opportunity to live our values and extend a helping hand to farmers and others who experienced this devastation,”

said Ivory Harris, AGCO SVP and chief human resources officer. 

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Bobcat announced a new partnership with the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF), a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening disaster response in America by training highly skilled canine and handler search teams. The partnership spotlights SDF’s National Training Center in Santa Paula, California, where shelter dogs are trained to become rescue dogs through simulated rubble piles and mock disaster sites.

Founded in 1996, SDF has trained 180 certified first responder and canine teams that have deployed to 216 disasters and missing person searches. Through this partnership, Bobcat equipment is used to create and maintain realistic onsite training environments at the 125-acre National Training Center, which is designed to simulate conditions in various types of natural and manmade disasters.

“We are excited to partner with the Search Dog Foundation and help support their mission to provide search and rescue training for dogs and their handlers. The Search Dog Foundation empowers lifesaving work that truly matters to all of us. Bobcat is honored to support these heroic first responders, who act with courage, determination, and toughness,”

said Laura Ness Owens, vice president of marketing, communication, and public affairs at Doosan Bobcat North America.

At SDF’s National Training Center, dogs must learn to crawl through tunnels, maneuver on ladders, navigate unstable surfaces and detect human scent beneath debris. A Bobcat T750 compact track loader, Bobcat E35 excavator, and a variety of Bobcat attachments are used for brush-clearing, trenching, road maintenance, moving rubble to create new training courses, and learning opportunities, and modifying existing courses for the dogs and their handlers.

“This important partnership with Bobcat enables us to train the next generation of search teams by constructing realistic environments and more challenging training scenarios at our campus. Bobcat’s support is helping our teams reach the highest skill levels needed for certification and maintain deployment readiness,”

said SDF’s Senior Director of Communications and Handler Operations Denise Sanders.

Over the past 25 years, SDF and its dogs and handlers have worked to save lives in hundreds of disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, and Irma, the Oklahoma City bombing, California mudslides, the World Trade Center attacks and earthquakes in Nepal, Haiti, and Japan.

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