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Show Higher Grazing Fee Threat I To Agriculture, Says Leader I The threat of considerably higher grazing fees for livestock on public land is one of several areas of government action that could drive meat prices higher at the grocery store and reduce the supply of meat, the head of Utah's largest farm organization warned consumers. Frank O Nishiguchi. president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, said it is a mistaken notion that current grazing fees represent a subsidy to livestock men "Over the long range, use of public land for grazing cattle and sheep represents a subsidy to the consumer rather than the producer,'' Nishiguchi explained. "But over the short range, the proposed 25 percent increase in grazing fees will represent a back-breaking cost hike that will likely drive some ranchers right out of the livestock business." He referred to a joint proposal by the secretaries of Interior and Agriculture that grazing fees be raised to a "fair market level" in jumps not to exceed 25 percent of the last year's fee level. "When those two cabinet members reported their proposal to Congress, they completely ignored the recommendations of their own study committee that the grazing fee formula include both the cost of pr'xhvtion and the current market price as factors," Nishiguchi stated. "Although Farm Bureau felt that the price paid for a grazing permit should he included as a production cost, we'd be willing to go along with the committee's recommendations." "But for the two secretaries to set up a committee to help implement the Federal Iand Policy and Management Act of 1976, then to ignore that group's suggestions in their proposal to Congress, is just another example of high-handed bureaucracy," the farm leader added. He explained that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service will start mailing bills to permit holders in February for the 1978 grazing fees at the 1977 levels ($1.51 per animal unit month on BLM land and an average of about $1.60 on Forest Service land). When a final decision is made on 1978 grazing fees, the departments will send revised billings indicating any additional payments, refunds or credits due the livestock operators. A 90-day comment period on the new fee formula ends Feb. 21, 1978, after which date the final fee decision will be made. |
