The federal grazing fee for 2015 is going up to $1.69 per animal unit month (AUM) for public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and $1.69 per head month (HM) for lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The 2014 fee was $1.35.
The newly calculated grazing fee, determined by a congressional formula, and effective on March 1, applies to nearly 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by the BLM and more than 8,000 permits administered by the Forest Service.
The formula used for calculating the grazing fee, which was established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act, has continued under a presidential Executive Order issued in 1986. Under that order, the grazing fee cannot fall below $1.35 per AUM, and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year’s level.
The annually determined grazing fee is computed by using a 1966 base value of $1.23 per AUM/HM for livestock grazing on public lands.
The figure is then calculated according to three factors – current private grazing land lease rates, beef cattle prices and the cost of livestock production. The fee rises, falls or stays the same based, according to BLM, on market conditions, with livestock operators paying more when conditions are better and less when conditions have declined.
The 2015 grazing fee of $1.69 per AUM/HM grazing fee applies to 16 western states, including Nevada.
