Farmers and ranchers affected by Hurricane Sandy should keep thorough records of all losses, urges Juan Garcia, Farm Service Agency (FSA) administrator. Those include livestock death losses, expenses for feed purchases and extraordinary costs because of lost supplies and or increased transportation costs.
Garcia recommends that owners and producers record all pertinent information of natural disaster consequences, including:
• Recording the number and kind of livestock that died, supplemented if possible by photographs or video records of ownership and losses;
• Keeping dates of deaths supported by birth recordings or purchase receipts;
• Recording costs of transporting livestock to safer grounds or to move animals to new pastures;
• Keeping track of feed purchases if supplies or grazing pastures are destroyed;
• Maintaining crop records, including seed and fertilizer purchases, planting and production records;
• Taking pictures of on-farm storage facilities destroyed by wind or flood waters; and
• Showing evidence of damaged farmland.
For more information, visit the FSA Web site. For details about federal crop insurance, visit www.rma.usda.gov. Additional resources to deal with flooding and other damage, visit www.usda.gov/disaster. Visit the USDA Service Center nearest you or USDA’s Emergency Preparedness and Response site