Let's see ... $2.27 per month for every month a cow and calf are on the BLM range is somehow unfair? The last time I checked a 75 lb hay bale was selling at the feed store for about $1.75. I'm sure it's much more expensive now. If fed carefully (in a feeder not on the ground), that bale might feed three feeder calves for a day. I just checked the US commodity index and feeder cattle were quoted at $1.57. So a six hundred pound calf goes for ... over $900? I could only find Nevada auction quotes from 2020 and they were around $750/600 lb calf. Maybe I'm reading that price index wrong? After shipping the calf, the rancher using BLM land still has his cow which though not worth as much per pound is eventually still going to at least be meat for McDonalds. I'm not sure (and I have searched hard for an answer), but I believe the per month BLM grazing fee only applies to the months the pairs are allowed on the range. I know from observation in Montana that most leases do not allow cattle on the land year round. My experience punching cows when teaching HS on the East Side is ranchers started moving pairs off the winter range (often the privately owned lowland hay fields) to BLM range at end of March or early April (late calvers excepted). I heard one rancher complain that BLM would not allow them to move cows onto the range due to drought till the end of April (which was a good thing ... they obviously had too many cows given the damage done to winter grounds). Cattle typically come off BLM summer range in October when the calves are shipped. I'm usually back there every fall for that roundup. So ... that would be seven months @$2.27/month/pair = $15.87 for grazing fees. Even if the rancher was charged for twelve months (and I would be surprised if that's the case), expense for BLM lease for TWO cattle would only be $27. I saw one T-bone at Walmart last night for $18 Canadian.
