For Immediate Release
By: R-CALF USA Communications Director Jaiden Moreland
Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard
Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com
BILLINGS, Mont., July 17, 2026 – R-CALF USA submitted formal comments on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed revisions to its grazing regulations. The proposal marks the first significant changes to BLM grazing policy in decades. While calling the proposal a long-needed step in the right direction, the organization recommended additional changes to improve the manner in which grazing is administered by the BLM, strengthen livestock production, and restore grazing capacity across the West.
In its comments, R-CALF USA noted that grazing capacity on Bureau-managed lands has steadily declined for decades, citing estimates that animal unit months, or AUMs, have fallen by more than 50% since 1954. With the nation’s cattle herd at its smallest since 1951, the organization said there is a desperate need to rebuild not only the domestic cattle herd but the sheep herd as well.
R-CALF USA expressed strong support for a proposed requirement that grazing permit holders be engaged in a production-oriented livestock business. The organization said the provision would help ensure grazing allotments are actually being put to use rather than being used for de facto conservation leasing and would reinforce the original intent of the Taylor Grazing Act.
The organization urged the BLM to formally adopt a no-net-loss policy for AUMs, recommending that active AUMs remain at or above current levels unless a scientific need for temporary suspension is demonstrated, and that once rangeland carrying capacity has been restored, suspended AUMs be returned to active status at the earliest possible moment. R-CALF USA said a codified no-net-loss policy would help restabilize the livestock industry while furthering the goals outlined in the 2025 USDA Plan to Fortify the American Beef Industry and the 2026 Advancing Grazing on Forest Service and BLM Lands Memorandum of Understanding.
The comments further encouraged the Bureau to align implementation of the rule with recent U.S. Forest Service (USFS) grazing directives to bring greater consistency between BLM and USFS grazing management, including restoring suspended AUMs, streamlining environmental review, coordinating wildfire response, and reopening vacant or closed grazing allotments.
Additional recommendations included updating regulations governing grazing permits used as security for bona fide loans to better reflect the Taylor Grazing Act; defining “substantial use” as a 90% stocking rate to reduce ambiguity, create consistency between BLM and USFS rules, and encourage the actual use of grazing allotments; providing beginning ranchers with a three- to five-year phase-in period to build their herds through retaining breeding heifers or securing additional financing before meeting that standard; restoring pre-1995 provisions recognizing ranchers’ ownership interests in certain range improvements; and examining opportunities to strengthen local grazing advisory boards to give producers a greater role in federal grazing management.
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Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only lobbying and trade association representing U.S. cattle and sheep producers. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. Visit www.r-calfusa.com or call 406-252-2516 for more information.