The drought here in the west is on the mind of the Ag Secretary.

"Could lead potentially to people having to sell their herds because they can't simply afford the cost of maintaining them." Tom Vilsack recently to announced the expansion of the Emergency Livestock Assistance Program [ELAP], specifically to help producers that need assistance with feed.

"We know that these farmers, particularly in the Western U.S., are going to be confronted with having to truck or rail feed from far distances and that's going to be an incredibly increase cost to them. So we're going to use this emergency program to provide up to 60% of the additional costs that they're incurring above and beyond what they normally incur for transportation expense. And for limited recourse farmers it could be as much as 90% of assistance and help."

Vilsack said this will help make it a little easier for some producers to weather the drought and stay in business. 

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