Evaluating Nonfee Grazing Permit Costs on Federal and Private Lands

Nonfee grazing costs on both federal and privately leased land have been a topic of research since the 1960s. A nonfee cost difference of $1.23 animal unit mo (AUM)−1, later adjusted to $1.35 AUM−1, was found between grazing on federal and privately leased land. This value became the base for the federal land forage value in the current federal grazing fee. In 1992, a task force group was formed to further research the value of federal forage and update the range for the federal grazing fee and recommended keeping the fee between $3 and $5, which would be $6.60 and $11.01 in 2018 US dollars. This study aims to update the 1992 nonfee costs of federal and privately leased grazing. Packets containing information on costs of grazing were gathered from randomly selected sheep and cattle producers in Wyoming, Idaho, and California for the yr 2018. The current study found an observed difference of $3.09 AUM−1 between public and privately leased grazing in the three states but found the overall costs to have no statistically significant difference. This research can be used in the future for observing the nonfee cost changes of federally and privately leased land in the western United States.