Economic Effects of Federal Grazing Programs

Abstract

Livestock grazing supports a considerable amount of economic activity across the United States. Federal grazing permits support numerous ranching operations by providing relatively low-cost grazing on federal lands. While grazing supports employment, labor income, and economic activity within a given state, the extent to which federal grazing permits play a role remains uncertain. In this paper we develop a method for estimating state-level economic contributions of livestock grazing for cattle grazing, as well as sheep and goat grazing, that is applicable to both the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. We report state-level direct response coefficients, defined as the economic effects per 1 000 animal unit months of grazing use. We apply our coefficients to grazing lands for both US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to estimate state-level economic contributions of federal grazing, finding that the economic effects of federal grazing are highest in western states where there are large amounts of public land. The measures of economic impact produced in this study were developed for consistent nationwide analyses. These measures may be used by researchers and land managers for conducting policy impacts and analysis of livestock grazing (e.g., increases or decreases of permitted grazing on public land) but are not intended to replace project- or site-specific economic analyses.