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To help non-ranchers understand that these 'huge' ranches are'nt really huge.....

A producer may be able to run two cow-calf pairs on well maintained, irrigated pasturage of a single acre........there are many places in the United States (think high desert areas, like Nevada, parts of Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, etc), based on the forage that grows naturally (non-irrigated, native grasses/bushes), it often times takes 30 acres or more to run one cow-calf pair!!

Before folks jump the gun and suggest that the domestic livestock just get off the range.....please consider that their grazing enhances the growth of forage making it better for ALL animals! Additionally, it is possible to feed domesticated livestock grains with seeds which are passed thru their digestive system which, after passing thru and being deposited in a pile of natural fertilizer and awaiting the occasional rain/snow, will take root and increase forage for all animals.

Grazing may benifit some areas, but that doesn't go for the close cropped sage barrens so prevelant in the Weast. Cattle and sheep are voracious eaters when there are lots of them. Thanks to immense herds of the four legged critters, large areas of native grass were cropped into oblivion, reducing native game to tiny, isolated fragments in the West, and allowing mass invasion of weedy species and the proliferation of sagebrush.

While grazing is benificial in moderation, al ot of people working the public lands don't care about moderation. After all, they break it, they don't have to pay to fix it (largely correct, yes?). Solution: either force them to change their ways (difficult) or privatize the rangeland. Of course, that'ld go over well I'm sure...

Also, speaking of benificial grazing: I've oft wondered why we don't try grazing the grand longleaf pine forests on the coastal plain-they were at one time kept open by large herbivors, and thus I can't see how limited anyway cattle grazing would harm them. The old Scott0Irish immigrants made their entire living off of it back before the Civil War. It would be an interesting experiment at any rate.