What is a Grazing Allotment

What is a grazing Allotment? It is a piece of property owned through a split estate with the Rancher and state and federal governments. For the Rancher it is a tangible right to real property that can be bought, sold, traded and used as collateral, for the purpose of livestock production. It is not borrowed or leased from any government agency or the public domain, but because of the split estate ownership portion it gives a unique Multi-Use quality which gives allowances for hunting, fishing, hiking and other outdoor recreational purposes it also allows for timber production oil and gas production mining and other things. Depending on whether you’re talking BLM or forest changes some minor things mainly in management practices, BLM is governed by the Taylor Grazing Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act or FLIPMA.  The Forest is governed by these and the Forest Organic Act.
So within your Grazing Allotment you have a grazing permit this is what shows the AUM’s or amount of livestock the grazing allotment can handle, and is supposed to be based on historical forge amounts and then acts as a receipt for how your Grazing fees are assessed, now these are fees that equal taxes much the same PILT money. So then it breaks down like this 50% goes to the state then is divided by the State and respective counties. 50% goes to the managing agency (forest/BLM) to cover administrative costs and then 50% goes into a range improvement fund, to be used to maintain roads, trails, watersheds, fences etc. To be fair the BLM does have some grazing leases and these are called Section 15 leases and consist generally of land under 160 acres but they are few and far between.

Ranching Truth.

Leave a Reply