APAS has written the Federal and Provincial Agriculture Ministers calling for an AgriRecovery program similar to the 2017 Canada-British Columbia Wildfires Initiative.

President Todd Lewis says they are hoping that with thousands of acres of land and 800 cattle destroyed it should qualify.

"We thought it was kind of an extraordinary event," he said. "It was a fire were hundreds of cattle died, and tens of thousands of acres have been burnt, so pretty extraordinary circumstances." 

Lewis said the uncertainty should play a role in ArgiRecovery being triggered.

"A lot of it us unknown now about the long-term affects on the cattle herd," Lewis said. "I think we need to look at where the main pasture is going to end up. It's unknown how quickly it's going to recover and a timely rain in the spring or fall could really help that pasture. We thought we throw it out there that maybe this is the time for AgriRecovery."    

The group asked for assistance with feed and transportation costs, re-establishment of safe winter feeding facilities and general clean up, veterinary services, livestock mortality and replacement of breeding stock and help with the extraordinary costs required to return farmland back to production, including the re-seeding and re-establishment of tame forages and other perennials.