The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1962-11-02
BurdunoUve--


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sonnet were hired in time to save
our forests, from complete disaster.
IF the present methods of manage
ment of our forests are continued,
in the future we will harvest mill
| lions of dollars of timber from
these lands.
In the opinion of many people we
have adopted policies in regards to
the disposition of the oil produced
on the state lands that are very ques-
tionable whether they will return
full market value'' to the state
school funds. The barley producers
protest last winter in Glacier county
against the barley yields set by ASC
brought out something that has not
yet been satisfactorily answered. The
producers submitted many signed and
sworn affidavits about their much
higher barley yields that they had
been receiving. Investigation of the
state farm lease returns in Glacier
county disclosed that the state has
been receiving far less than the yields
that were claimed. Either somebody
was pulling Uncle Sans leg or the
schools of Montana are receiving the
short end on their crop share.
EXPLAINS "ANIMAL
UNIT MONTH"
Many people are confused in dis
cussing state grazing rentals by the
term "AUM'' and how the rental is
determined. An animal unit is either
zone cow, one horse, five sheep. or
goats. An animal unit month is the
amount of natural forage necessary
for the complete subsistence of one
cow for period of one month Cor
one horse or five sheep)". All state
grazing lands are appraised for car
rying capacity (the total animals the
tract will carry for IL months). On
very good lands one or two acres will
make an "AUM". Very poor lands
may require up to 20-3O acres to
make an AUM. The average for all
of Montana's school lands is a little
more then three acres per "AUM".
The rental formula is based ON a
ratio of the average cost of grazing
lOI q UdSS pSIIOu \lOo i-IOFOJ W CIl0
average price of beef for the imme-
date proceeding three years. In order
to make this explanation clear let us
take a little better than average g
acres per AUM) school section (640
acres). For the coming grazing year
of 1868 the State Land Board has
just determined that the grazing fee
will be 46 cents per "AUM' you di-
vide the $40 acres by 8 acres per
"AUM'', which gives you 213 AUMs.
Multiply this figure by 46 cents and
you will have a return to the state
of $97.98 for the $40 acre tract. If
it were poorer land (say Is acres
per AUM) the return would be $19.78
for 1868.
You often hear about raising the
rentals on poor land as much as on
good land. This is not really
strong argument as you raise the
rental only on ACTUAL FORAGE
or CARRYING CAPACITY.
Many conflicting figures are pre-
pared as to what is the current value
If grazing in Montana. Ranchers
complain the proponents of higher
grazing rentals confuse Commercial
,razing'' rents with rentals for state
ands. If this happens ranchers have
complaint as commercial" grazing
5 the taking in of cattle by a rancher
yho will supervise the cattle, fix
ences, ride, possibly furnish salt,
tc. The fees for this type of grazing
re of course much higher and should
OFT be considered.
ATES KEPT ARTIFICiALLY LOW
On the other hand opponents of
igher grazing fees always point to
ureau of Land Management lands
: Taylor grazing lands as being very
heap. Let's be honest about these
ovenment lands. Their rates are
ept artificially low and are a fed
al subsidy to the rancherS that have