Colokeb
Member
I would like to add my two cents about grazing rights.
I own a small dry ranch but am not farming.... but I do grow 1 1/2 acres of hay at my residence to trade for beef.
The Western ranchers have to grow hay in order to feed their cattle during the winter season. The hay magically causes baby calves to appear in March.
The hay is grown on irrigated bottomlands near rivers or lands in canal-irrigated areas.
Cows can NOT be in the green grass while it is growing because (1) they would eat it and have nothing for the winter. (2) They would trample the grass and destroy it into mud.
The Ranchers have to have a place to put the cows during the hay-grow season. They can't grow enough hay in the summer to feed both for summer and winter. The government owns almost all the western land that wasn't homesteaded 140 years ago. The homesteaded land (private land) was almost always near water. The government land is almost always nearly dry, or it is in the mountains, and might be wet and green in the summer, but inaccessible in the winter. Nothing to eat there in the winter. Good for fall elk and deer hunting, and snowmobiling in the winter. Sometimes has gold or silver. Or Fish. The cattle are herded or trucked to the mountains once the snow is mostly gone, graze all summer, then they are rounded up in the fall and put back on land owned by the ranch after the hay has been cut and baled.
Most ranches depend on growing hay in the summer, and herding the cows to the BLM allotments which run with the land. You can't "start" a new ranch and have much chance of ever getting in on a BLM permit. They are all taken. Sometimes ranchers sell their water to California, close the ranch business, subdivide , and thus allow more folks to come into California thru a process called legal immigration. In this case a permit might become available.
Ranchers can't make it by buying outside feed. Yes, some ranchers just grow hay, but if you look carefully that business can't stand alone. They also teach school, work at a business, guide the hunters, or collect a pension. A large portion of hay ground is leased out.
Western irrigated land costs $5,000-10,000 an acre. Then there is equipment, fertilizer, fuel and labor. If an acre yields 120 bales, the net after expenses is maybe $2 bucks x 120.
Once the BLM / Environmentalists remove the grazing permit, the rest of the cattle ranch is economically worthless. As opposed to the old days where the BLM / Forest Service was the rancher's friend, today many of the government folks fall in two categories. Heavily armed swat uniformed, not like Smokey Bear helpin' you find some fishing or a camping spot, or because they went to EnviroWackJob university, they just want to keep everybody or thing off Their Land.
Land permitting is not the case in California or the Pacific Northwest as their winters are mild enough that grass grows all year, and the ranchers rotate the cows. In the Midwest, the product is milk which is worth more, there is more rain, and the soil is much more fertile.
To the Western Rancher, the grazing permit is akin to ammo for the Winchester.
I own a small dry ranch but am not farming.... but I do grow 1 1/2 acres of hay at my residence to trade for beef.
The Western ranchers have to grow hay in order to feed their cattle during the winter season. The hay magically causes baby calves to appear in March.
The hay is grown on irrigated bottomlands near rivers or lands in canal-irrigated areas.
Cows can NOT be in the green grass while it is growing because (1) they would eat it and have nothing for the winter. (2) They would trample the grass and destroy it into mud.
The Ranchers have to have a place to put the cows during the hay-grow season. They can't grow enough hay in the summer to feed both for summer and winter. The government owns almost all the western land that wasn't homesteaded 140 years ago. The homesteaded land (private land) was almost always near water. The government land is almost always nearly dry, or it is in the mountains, and might be wet and green in the summer, but inaccessible in the winter. Nothing to eat there in the winter. Good for fall elk and deer hunting, and snowmobiling in the winter. Sometimes has gold or silver. Or Fish. The cattle are herded or trucked to the mountains once the snow is mostly gone, graze all summer, then they are rounded up in the fall and put back on land owned by the ranch after the hay has been cut and baled.
Most ranches depend on growing hay in the summer, and herding the cows to the BLM allotments which run with the land. You can't "start" a new ranch and have much chance of ever getting in on a BLM permit. They are all taken. Sometimes ranchers sell their water to California, close the ranch business, subdivide , and thus allow more folks to come into California thru a process called legal immigration. In this case a permit might become available.
Ranchers can't make it by buying outside feed. Yes, some ranchers just grow hay, but if you look carefully that business can't stand alone. They also teach school, work at a business, guide the hunters, or collect a pension. A large portion of hay ground is leased out.
Western irrigated land costs $5,000-10,000 an acre. Then there is equipment, fertilizer, fuel and labor. If an acre yields 120 bales, the net after expenses is maybe $2 bucks x 120.
Once the BLM / Environmentalists remove the grazing permit, the rest of the cattle ranch is economically worthless. As opposed to the old days where the BLM / Forest Service was the rancher's friend, today many of the government folks fall in two categories. Heavily armed swat uniformed, not like Smokey Bear helpin' you find some fishing or a camping spot, or because they went to EnviroWackJob university, they just want to keep everybody or thing off Their Land.
Land permitting is not the case in California or the Pacific Northwest as their winters are mild enough that grass grows all year, and the ranchers rotate the cows. In the Midwest, the product is milk which is worth more, there is more rain, and the soil is much more fertile.
To the Western Rancher, the grazing permit is akin to ammo for the Winchester.
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