BLM: Grazing fees to stay the same in 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fee for grazing livestock on federal lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service will be the same as last year, $1.35 per animal unit month, the two federal agencies an-nounced Friday.

An animal unit month is the amount of forage needed to sustain a cow and a calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month.

The fee is adjusted annually on March 1 to take into account private grazing rates, cattle prices and the cost of livestock production. It applies to public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service in 16 Western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

The formula used for calculating the grazing fee was established by Congress in 1978. Under a 1986 presidential order, the fee cannot fall below $1.35 per AUM.

and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year’s level.

Without that requirement, this year’s fee would have dropped below $1 per AUM because of declining beef cattle prices and increased production costs from the previous year, the agencies said.

The Forest Service applies different grazing fees to national grasslands and to lands it manages in the East and Midwest and parts of Texas. The national grassland fee will be $1.35 per animal unit month, down from $1.37 in 2007.

Tags: farm, livestock, grazing