(NewsDakota.com/USDA) – The USDA is updating the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase Two.

The goal is to provide a method for valuing losses and accessing program benefits to eligible producers of certain crops. Those crops can include grapes grown and used by the same producer for wine production or forage that’s grown, stored, and fed to livestock, that don’t generate revenue directly from the sale of the crop. These updates ensure that ERP benefits better reflect these producers’ actual crop losses resulting from 2020 and 2021 natural disaster events.

The Farm Service Agency will begin accepting Phase Two applications from eligible wine grape and forage producers once the technical correction to ERP is published in the Federal Register, which should happen by June 16. The deadline to submit applications for ERP Phase Two is July 14. FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux says these updates address the unique needs of different producers.