America’s largest organization exclusively representing independent cattle and sheep producers, R-CALF USA, has endorsed the Protecting Agricultural Spaces Through Effective Ranching Strategies (PASTURES) Act (H.R.10042).
The bill, introduced on Oct. 25, 2024, by U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY), will limit the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) from penalizing landowners with private property adjacent to certain federally managed lands for livestock trespassing after grazing allocations are adjusted or rescinded.
The legislation will also prevent penalties upon livestock owners for livestock grazing on certain federal lands where a fence to prevent such grazing does not exist, and it will place responsibility on the USDA and DOI for the construction and maintenance of fencing that prevents grazing on covered federally managed lands.
“The first step in restoring grazing to federally managed lands is to stop the federal government from its ongoing practice of systematically reducing or eliminating grazing where it was historically recognized as beneficial,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “The PASTURES Act helps accomplish this by placing the cost burden for livestock removal where it belongs, which is not on the backs of independent livestock producers.”