The Uncosted West · Episode 3 of 15 · 36 min
Why Grazing on Public Land Costs Just $1.35 a Cow (The Taylor Grazing Act)
A New Deal law ended the free-for-all on the overgrazed public range, then hardened into a permanent below-market subsidy. The episode traces the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 through the birth of the Bureau of Land Management to a grazing fee far below the private rate, and states the permittee's case fairly.
Who's who
- Edward T. TaylorColorado congressman for whom the Act is named
- Franklin D. Roosevelt+28 more episodesPresident who signed the Act in 1934
- Harold L. IckesInterior Secretary who created the Division of Grazing
- Farrington R. CarpenterFirst director of the Division of Grazing
Where it happens
- Public domain rangelands, American WestOpen range grazed into ruin before 1934
Timeline
- June 28, 1934Roosevelt signs the Taylor Grazing Act
- 1946Grazing Service and General Land Office merge into the Bureau of Land Management
- 1978Public Rangelands Improvement Act sets the fee formula with a $1.35 floor
- 2004GAO finds agencies spent about $144 million administering grazing and collected about $21 million
- March 2026Federal fee rises to $1.69 per animal unit month
Still debated
The net size of the subsidy depends on how permittees' private costs are counted, and grazing is often overstated as a cause of the Dust Bowl, which came mainly from plowed farmland. The GAO figures are two decades old.
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