Nebraska livestock producers have until July 15 to file an annual acreage report with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency — a step that can help maintain eligibility for federal drought assistance programs.

The deadline comes as about three-quarters of Nebraska remains in drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Nebraska has also been hit by historic wildfires that have burned more than 1 million acres across western and central Nebraska so far this year, including the South Fork Fire in northwest Nebraska, which burned nearly 40,000 acres before being fully contained last week.

The Livestock Forage Disaster Program, known as LFP, is the Farm Service Agency's flagship drought assistance program. It compensates livestock producers for grazing losses caused by drought on privately owned or leased land. Applications for 2026 losses are due March 1, 2027.

Nebraska Farm Service Agency State Executive Director Hilary Maricle said producers who miss the July 15 deadline can still file a late acreage report before completing their LFP application.

"If you want to apply for LFP benefits, we do have a provision to allow for late file," Maricle said. "It just has to occur prior to completing that application."

Still, Maricle encouraged producers not to wait, saying filing by July 15 makes the process smoother when a disaster program triggers.

FSA county-level data shows dozens of Nebraska counties have reached Tier 4 or Tier 5 — the most severe drought classifications — for native and improved pasture, concentrated in the Panhandle, Sandhills and southwest Nebraska. Nearly every county in the state has triggered LFP eligibility for small grains.

In the Sandhills, that toll is already measurable. At the University of Nebraska’s Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory in the western Sandhills, mid-June forage production this year fell to 335 pounds per acre – less than half of last year's total. Eric Hunt, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension educator and meteorologist, said it was among the lowest in the roughly two decades the lab has tracked it.

Payment amounts, meanwhile, are changing. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law last year, includes a provision that would reduce the LFP drought trigger from eight consecutive weeks of severe drought — known as D2 — to four. That change could expand eligibility to producers who hit four weeks of D2 but not eight and increase payments for those already qualifying. But the Farm Service Agency is still awaiting final implementation guidance.

The agency is currently processing applications under existing rules and will make adjustments automatically once the new policy is finalized, Maricle said. Producers who have already applied will not need to refile.

Maricle said livestock producers, unlike crop producers, often don't visit their local Farm Service Agency office annually, and she encouraged them to check in now.

"We just don't see that habit of coming into the office every year from our livestock producers. However, we would encourage it,” she said. “If you've come in and you've certified every year — certified your pasture, your livestock — when we do have a disaster program trigger, it makes the paperwork much faster, much smoother."

In addition to LFP, the Farm Service Agency is offering assistance through the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program, which covers feed and water hauling costs, and the Emergency Conservation Program, which provides cost-share funding for water infrastructure repairs.

Producers can find a local Farm Service Agency office or find deadlines and program information online.