Livestock producers in 59 Tennessee counties eligible for USDA Hurricane Helene relief

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency identified 59 Tennessee counties that are eligible for the Emergency Livestock Relief Program assistance to offset higher feed costs caused by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg)

Livestock producers in nearly two-thirds of Tennessee counties who incurred extra feed costs in 2024 due to flooding brought by Hurricane Helene may be eligible for federal funding through the Emergency Livestock Relief Program.

The program, meant to help offset increased feed costs due to flood and wildfire disasters throughout the country in 2023 and 2024, is expected to pay out about $1 billion, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brook L. Rollins announced earlier this month.

Tennessee had no qualifying flood or fire events in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. But 59 Tennessee counties — including all of West Tennessee and multiple East Tennessee counties — are pre-determined as eligible for flood events in 2024.

Eligible livestock include beef and dairy cattle, buffalo, bison, beefalo (a bison-cattle hybrid), alpacas, llamas, deer, elk, reindeer, ostriches, emus, equine, goats and sheep.

Producers can receive up to 60% of three months of feed costs for a qualifying flood, according to the USDA. The program has a cap of $125,000 per producer for each program year, though. Producers who already received the maximum payment from the Emergency Livestock Relief Program for Drought and Wildfire, a program announced in May, are not eligible for additional flood relief payments.

The funding comes from the American Relief Act of 2025, which allotted about $940 million to flood and wildfire assistance. Should national demand for relief exceed that amount, the USDA will apply a “national payment factor” based on the number of eligible applicants, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Applications for assistance opened on Sept. 15 and will close on Oct. 31. Livestock producers in eligible counties are not required to submit supporting documentation for floods or wildfires. Producers outside of the counties identified by the FSA can apply for aid, but need to include documentation of a qualifying flood or wildfire in the county where livestock were kept, according to the USDA.

Cattle and calves are Tennessee’s number one agricultural commodity in terms of cash receipts, according to the USDA Tennessee Field Office.

Hurricane Helene dumped between 3 and 10 inches of rain in some areas of the state between Sept. 26 and Sept. 30, 2024, flooding some fields and interrupting the harvest. Floodwaters knocked out bridges and major infrastructure, most acutely in Northeast Tennessee.

“For livestock producers, the economic consequences were swift and severe,” the American Farm Bureau Federation stated in a Sept. 16 news release. “Transportation costs soared as washed-out infrastructure delayed feed shipments. Replacement feed was more expensive and harder to find, with crop failures adding to shortages.”

Tennessee Department of Agriculture representatives visited upper East Tennessee in June to survey ongoing recovery efforts. Hurricane Helene’s impact on Tennessee farmers and forestland owners is estimated at up to $1.8 billion, according to the state’s agriculture department.