LAP Program Okayed
In 128 Texas Counties

AUSTIN — Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs announced last week that 128 Texas counties are currently approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency for the Livestock Assistance Program.

LAP, administrated by FSA, provides direct payments to eligible livestock producers in approved counties that have suffered grazing losses due to natural disasters during 1999. Nationwide, $200 million has been allocated for livestock producers for weather-related losses as part of the $8.7 billion farm assistance package passed in October. An additional $10 million in funding was approved in the recently passed H.R. 3194, which provides $576 million in additional emergency funding.

For drouth-related losses, LAP benefits are available in approved counties where precipitation was 40 percent or more below normal for at least four months and where there was at least a 40 percent loss of available grazing during a 90-day period due to drouth.

Eligible producers must have suffered a 40 percent or greater loss of grazing for a 90-day period during 1999. Eligible livestock include beef and dairy cattle; buffalo or beefalo when maintained on the same basis as beef cattle; sheep; goats; swine; and equine animals used commercially for human food or kept for the production of food or fiber on the owner's farm or ranch.

The approved counties include Archer, Austin, Bastrop, Baylor, Bell, Blanco, Bosque, Bowie, Brazoria, Brazos, Brown, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Callahan, Camp, Cass, Clay, Coke, Coleman, Collin, Comal, Comanche, Concho, Cooke, Coryell, Crockett, Dallas, Delta, Denton, DeWitt, Eastland, Edwards, Ellis, Erath, Falls, Fannin, Fisher, Foard, Fort Bend, Franklin, Freestone, Grayson, Grimes, Guadalupe, Hamilton, Harris, Harrison, Haskell, Hays, Henderson, Hill, Hood, Hopkins, Houston, Howard, Hunt, Irion, Jack, Johnson, Jones, Kaufman, Kent, Kimble, Knox, Lamar, Lampasas, Leon, Limestone, Llano, McCulloch, McLennan, McMullen, Madison, Marion, Martin, Mason, Medina, Menard, Milam, Mills, Montague, Montgomery, Morris, Nacogdoches, Navarro, Nolan, Orange, Palo Pinto, Panola, Parker, Rains, Reagan, Real, Red River, Robertson, Rockwall, Runnels, San Saba, Schleicher, Scurry, Shackelford, Somervell, Stephens, Sterling, Stonewall, Sutton, Tarrant, Taylor, Throckmorton, Titus, Tom Green, Trinity, Upshur, Upton, Van Zandt, Walker, Waller, Washington, Webb, Wichita, Wilbarger, Williamson, Wilson, Wise, Wood, Young and Zapata. Additional counties are pending approval and will be announced as they become eligible for the LAP.

More information on the Livestock Assistance Program is available from local USDA-Farm Service Agency offices.