The Welfare Cattle Empire That Controls Your Public Lands: article

[ndmarine]

Read this with an open mind. The select monopoly wants you to ride the status quo and never question the system.

https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/the-welfare-cattle-empire-that-controls

Very very interesting article. Worth a read.

 

[ndmarine]

Here’s the question we should be asking about public lands grazing.

Why are we still paying for this?

In March 2025, we first laid out the basic absurdity of the system. Privately owned cattle graze 248 million acres of your federal land for the price of a gas station coffee. Bison, the native animal that built those grasslands, gets fenced in, hazed by helicopters, or slaughtered if it wanders. We thought it was the most infuriating public lands story we’d ever told.

Thirteen months later, the Trump administration proved us right by trying to make it worse. In January 2026, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum moved to revoke American Prairie’s bison grazing permits after Montana’s Republican delegation asked him to. The BLM finalized that decision in May 2026, ordering the removal of bison from 63,000 acres of federal public lands by September 30. We covered the eviction in detail. We’re not retelling that story.

We’re telling the one underneath it. The federal grazing program isn’t a quirk or a relic. It’s an active welfare system, designed by a lobby that represents less than 3 percent of American ranchers, funded by a federal tax on the people it claims to speak for, and protected by a political coalition that gets very rich pretending to defend the family ranch. Almost everything you’ve been told about public lands grazing is propaganda. The math is worse than you think. The beneficiaries aren’t who you’ve been told. And the cost to the West, ecological, economic, and political, is catastrophic.

This is the piece about why a system everyone with a calculator can see is broken refuses to die. About who profits from keeping it alive. And about what it would take to finally stop paying….

 

[Phaseolus]

Here's food for thought: If we cancel out public land grazing those ranches will go bankrupt, their land sold to rich people who will break it up and lock the gates.

 

[Chris in TN]

As with all other public land related issues, my stance is that no matter how dumb the existing system is, activists trying to 'fix' it will just make it worse.

Leave well enough alone.

 

[LostArra]

Here's food for thought: If we cancel out public land grazing those ranches will go bankrupt, their land sold to rich people who will break it up and lock the gates.

How do cattle ranches survive in states without public land to graze?
No argument. Just curious.

 

[Wrench]

I have friends that range cows on NF ground. They had their land condemned for the Yakima firing center to be built and were forced to trade into different land and some grazing leases.

These stories have stories inside them.

 

[7RemMag]

Here's food for thought: If we cancel out public land grazing those ranches will go bankrupt, their land sold to rich people who will break it up and lock the gates.

I don’t necessarily disagree with your point, but I’m going to answer your question with a couple questions to sort of expand on this.

What about the land that they block access to that can’t be accessed already? As far as the land they own outright, a sizable portion of them aren’t allowing access to anyone, or are leasing to an outfitter currently anyway. Would the net loss to the public really be that large in the scenario you describe?

Furthermore, isn’t one of the fundamentals of capitalism that when one door closes, a new one is opened up for someone else? I don’t like the idea of some rich jerk owning the land anymore than the next guy, but if someone’s operation is so dependent on grazing public lands, was their operation really sustainable in the first place?

To be clear, these questions don’t necessarily reflect my personal opinion on the matter. Like you said…Food for thought. It’s certainly an odd predicament for public lands stakeholders and users to find ourselves in. For one thing, Ranchers going out of business for not having access to feed their cattle is going to present problems in our food supply.

 

[Sully_44]

How do cattle ranches survive in states without public land to graze?
No argument. Just curious.

Idk if this is the case for all of those states but a lot of them receive more rain than states with public so they can hold multiple cows per acre to raise a calf, while public land states are in some cases hundreds of acres per cow to raise the same calf. So with all that said. A rancher in the Midwest can own 1000 acres and produce a few hundred or more calves on that land while a rancher out west will graze on thousands of acres for a few hundred calves. In my family’s case we run on roughly 100,000 acres of BLM and a little forest and can handle about 4-500 mother cows.

 

[Phaseolus]

The last two winters of drought in Western Colorado have pushed many of them to the edge of financial stability, that and the fires.

 

[MTBackroads]

If you are against ranchers and farmers, who exactly are you with?
Eat a steak and stfu.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Grazing on government land allows ranchers to hay the bottom land during the summer. I've paid $10/animal unit on private land for the cows to stand in belly deep grass, while grazing on government land for $1-2 /AUM they had to walk 15-20 ft for their next bite.

A quick note, as private land state people bitch about the cows -the next step is a use fee for every non-resident to walk on federal land.

 

[Coveyleader]

I’m ok with cattle, can’t stand sheep!

 

[Sandhills]

National Forests were created as a source of cheap timber for small logging companies and for cheap grazing lands for small ranchers. BLM lands were created by the Taylor GRAZING Act. Public lands are meant to be grazed.

 

[Billy Goat]

We can eliminate grazing on public land.

Farming and ranching is subsidized in this country fairly heavily really. For any first world country, we spend way less on food than anyone else I'm aware of.



Pay for it one way or another.

Guess everyone can eat chicken.
Oh wait, shit all that feed is subsidized too.

 

[Ucsdryder]

The last two winters of drought in Western Colorado have pushed many of them to the edge of financial stability, that and the fires.

Is this true? Every time my dad takes a load to the auction you can’t wipe the smile off his face when he’s selling weaners for $5 Plus a pound.

 

[Billy Goat]

Is this true? Every time my dad takes a load to the auction you can’t wipe the smile off his face when he’s selling weaners for $5 Plus a pound.

There's no denying its a great time to sell, if you have anything to sell.

I know several in the past 18 months that figured it wouldn't be a better time to try to go out on top.


Fire will remove your ability to feed anything in a flash. Eastern markets are actually frequently "hammered" by stuff from drought and fire in the west. Thise stock show up, and bring the price down, plus it cost a lot to get them there. Just to be hauled back west to a feed lot.

 

[Tobe_B]

The article is trying to paint public land grazing as black and white, and it isn’t. Find any government funded program and there’s going to be someone taking advantage and gaining more than someone else. But then on the other side of the coin is somebody relying on that same benefit to just keep themselves afloat.

 

[displacedtexan]

Idk if this is the case for all of those states but a lot of them receive more rain than states with public so they can hold multiple cows per acre to raise a calf, while public land states are in some cases hundreds of acres per cow to raise the same calf. So with all that said. A rancher in the Midwest can own 1000 acres and produce a few hundred or more calves on that land while a rancher out west will graze on thousands of acres for a few hundred calves. In my family’s case we run on roughly 100,000 acres of BLM and a little forest and can handle about 4-500 mother cows.

Sounds like some pretty lousy grazing land...

 

[MtnW]

These billionaires~ public land controllers the article addresses are pure scum in my opinion. He talks about Stan Kroenke like he made his money from sports franchises. He really made his billions from marriage to Sam Walton’s brother Bud Walton’s, daughter. These Walton type and Murdoch billionaires are not republicans or democrats but control, manipulate and fund which ever party is in power and use them to their advantage. As the article states many of their 500,000+ acre land holdings are actually 85% public lands but they are subsidized and controlled as they are their own private estates.

These greedy billionaire mega land holders hire the top New York tax attorneys money can buy at rates exceeding $2500 an hour to manipulate the government systems and the same with DC lobbyist to suck in our elected officials. I have been in meetings with these billionaires and listened to their pure greed. They acquire these large cattle ranches primarily for government subsidies and HUGE multi million dollar tax write offs, no to mention their own private hunting and fishing estates all on the backs of the general public tax payers. These billionaire types hire the same level attorneys to manipulate the system in most every business they are involved in. These ranchers are just the ones who hit closest to home for me. These are not good people or who have the best interests of our great country.

 

[MTBackroads]

These billionaires~ public land controllers the article addresses are pure scum in my opinion. He talks about Stan Kroenke like he made his money from sports franchises. He really made his billions from marriage to Sam Walton’s brother Bud Walton’s, daughter. These Walton type and Murdoch billionaires are not republicans or democrats but control, manipulate and fund which ever party is in power and use them to their advantage. As the article states many of their 500,000+ acre land holdings are actually 85% public lands but they are subsidized and controlled as they are their own private estates.

These greedy billionaire mega land holders hire the top New York tax attorneys money can buy at rates exceeding $2500 an hour to manipulate the government systems and the same with DC lobbyist to suck in our elected officials. I have been in meetings with these billionaires and listened to their pure greed. They acquire these large cattle ranches primarily for government subsidies and HUGE multi million dollar tax write offs, no to mention their own private hunting and fishing estates all on the backs of the general public tax payers. These billionaire types hire the same level attorneys to manipulate the system in most every business they are involved in. These ranchers are just the ones who hit closest to home for me. These are not good people or who have the best interests of our great country.

Hansjorg Wyss and the APR resemble that remark.