The Emergency Livestock Assistance Program: When Disasters Strike
September 2, 2026
The Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish (ELAP) is USDA's catch-all livestock disaster program, designed to compensate producers for losses that fall outside the more specific LFP and LIP programs. It covers a surprisingly wide range of agricultural emergencies.
What ELAP covers
ELAP compensation categories include:
- Feed transportation costs — when drought forces ranchers to haul feed to stranded livestock at distances beyond normal commercial operations
- Livestock losses on grazing land from certain diseases or pests — some specialty livestock losses not covered by LIP
- Honeybee colony losses — compensation for beekeepers who lose colonies due to qualifying adverse weather events or Colony Collapse Disorder
- Farm-raised fish losses — aquaculture producers who lose stock due to extreme weather events
- Certain poultry losses — under specific circumstances not covered elsewhere
Administrative process
ELAP requires producers to notify their FSA county office within 30 days of a loss and to file an application for compensation. Documentation requirements can be significant — particularly for honeybee losses, which are notoriously difficult to verify. Payment rates are set annually.
Honeybee payments in the data
ELAP honeybee payments are visible in SubsidyLookup's data under the ELAP CFDA number. In years with large Colony Collapse Disorder events or severe winter losses, honeybee ELAP payments can be substantial and represent an interesting subset of agricultural disaster assistance data.
Finding ELAP in SubsidyLookup
ELAP appears under CFDA 10.090 along with LFP and LIP in some reporting periods. Browse the program index and look for the livestock disaster cluster of CFDA numbers, or check state pages for states with significant apiary or aquaculture sectors.