After losing their farms, livestock and more, farmers and ranchers impacted by the Road 702 Fire went to a disaster assistance workshop on Thursday afternoon.

“People are coming to find out what kind of resources might be available for them in order to help restore their ground and sort of what to do next," said State Executive Director of the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) John Berge.

The USDA Farm Service Agency shared with those impacted the programs available to them. The programs available include the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP), Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm Raised Fish Program (ELAP), Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP).

“This is the first time we’ve had this type of big disaster happen,” said Extension Educator Todd Whitney. “The nice part is that we have had some rain for recovery, but we do need to have some direction as far as what’s allowable and what they can do.”

The FSA recommends those impacted by the wildfires to apply to the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). Livestock owners must provide acceptable documentation of their livestock and inventory. These include items such as veterinary records, canceled check documentation, balance sheets, inventory records used for tax purposes, loan records, bank statements and more. For more information, those impacted by the fire can call the FSA in Furnas County at 308-268-3055, ext. 2, and Red Willow and Frontier Counties at 308-345-4163, ext. 2.

A farmer at the workshop said it's good to learn about all this information now.

“The biggest thing is the concern of trying to save our land for the future generations and how we do that the best way possible," said Bartley farmer and rancher, Doug Harsh.

Representatives from USDA’s Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Risk Management Agency presented information on the various disaster assistance programs and resources available for farmers, ranchers and rural landowners. Nebraska Extension and local Natural Resources Districts were also present to provide resource information.

“We haven’t been able to get down here because the fires have been active, so we are just really happy to be in the area, to be present and to be a resource to farmers,” said Nate Blum, Executive Director at The Nebraska Grain Sorghum Board and The Nebraska Grain Sorghum Producers Association.

Blum said the Nebraska Grain Board is "here to help," and they would appreciate the farmers and ranchers impacted by the fire to reach out to him at 402-471-4276 or at 402-802-1850. He can be emailed at sorghum.board@nebraska.gov. He also encouraged those reaching out to visit their website.

In the workshop, there was an Argentinian entrepreneur, Franco Borgogno, who develops plant-based products. He came all the way from Argentina for this meeting and to present resource information with the The Nebraska Grain Sorghum Board.

“I think it's pretty good to have all these people around here support each other," Borgogno said.

Following the workshop, there was a separate soil health meeting for area farmers.