Without Farm Bill, S.D. ranchers who lost estimated 180,000 cattle in blizzard won't get federal aid

Congress's inability to pass a new Farm Bill continues to hurt farmers and ranchers. South Dakota livestock owners who lost an estimated 180,000 cattle in last week's blizzard are not eligible for federal assistance, because the program that once protected livestock owners expired, and a new one that would provide assistance is stuck in limbo, Tim Marema reports for the Daily Yonder. "That means South Dakota ranchers – and any other American livestock owners who suffer losses – are on their own." (Photo: Dead cattle in South Dakota)

About 30 inches of snow fell across the state, with some areas reporting as much as five feet, Alex Johnson reports for NBC News. The South Dakota Stock Growers Association estimated that 15 percent to 20 percent of all cattle, a $7 billion industry in the state, were killed. Some ranchers reported losing half or more of their herds. (Read more)

Livestock protection programs "expired in 2011 and weren’t reauthorized in the Farm Bill extension that year or in 2012," but they are part of the proposed farm bills that have passed the House and Senate, Marema writes. John K. Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, told the Yonder in an email: “For the past two years, thanks to the inaction of Congress, the authority for or the funding of the livestock indemnity program has expired. This is one more good reason why we need to pass the new farm bill rather than extend the old one. This is a national disgrace." (Read more)