LOVELOCK - A recent cattle drive came to a halt when livestock refused to enter a freeway underpass. After a brief standoff, however, cowboys managed to push the animals through the narrow tunnel to their winter range. Wet weather and graffiti abatement may have spooked the herd, explained rancher Dan Duncan.
"They painted the tunnel white," he said. "That and the rain might be why they were fighting us."
The next morning it was sunny and a less skittish herd headed right through the underpass. It was the second day of a four-day operation with inoculated and bug-proofed cattle herded into the Coal Canyon area east of the Interstate 80 freeway. This and another long-term grazing allotment to the west have sustained the Duncan family business since the 1940s but there could be less certain times ahead.
Cattle rotation gives each of Duncan's allotments a 16-month "rest" period allowing the forage to recover. Between the time on public land, his cattle graze on private ground along the Humboldt River.
This year, however, the Bureau of Land Management authorized a temporary two-month grazing permit for the Coal Canyon-Poker allotment, according to Victor Lozano, associate district manager of the BLM's Winnemucca District Office. Despite the rain, drought persists and BLM range specialists will be monitoring the impact of cattle, he said. In less than two months, further grazing restrictions could be imposed on Duncan and other ranchers across the region are facing the same situation.
The agency's drought mitigation measures have forced a 24 percent reduction in Duncan's stocking rate and his grazing permit is down from 493 to 376 head of cattle as of Nov. 1, Lozano explained.
"The permittee is authorized to graze until Dec. 31, at which time Mr. Stewart will revisit the allotment, conduct further drought monitoring and discuss further use at that time based upon the data obtained in December," Lozano wrote in a recent e-mail statement.
In other words, Duncan and other ranchers don't know beyond one or two months if or how many animals they'll be able to keep on their allotments. To meet last year's reduction, Duncan sold some of his stock with a subsequent loss of future income. If further reductions force him to sell more animals, Duncan has told local officials his livelihood will be in jeopardy.
"This is how we make our living," Duncan said. "We're under 400 AUMs (animal unit months) so we're already down by a quarter of the herd usually permitted. Normally we'd be right at 500 AUMs."
One AUM (animal unit month) is the amount of forage consumed by one animal unit in a month.
An animal unit is defined as one cow/calf, one horse, five sheep or five goats. The grazing fee charged by the BLM remains unchanged at $1.35 per AUM, according to the agency's website.
During drought, less forage means fewer AUMs are sustainable on public grazing allotments but Duncan and other ranchers argue that excess wild horses are a greater threat than the drought.
"The range is looking fair but it would look a lot better if the horses weren't there," Duncan said. "We can survive the drought - it's the horses that are causing the problem."
In July, the BLM removed 101 wild horses from Duncan's allotment after complaints the animals had damaged a Lovelock municipal ground water facility. As well as a potential drinking water threat, the animals were labeled "excess" due to their location within the BLM Humboldt Herd Area. The area is zoned off limits to wild horses by the agency although hundreds more still exist within the HA.
"From June 23 through July 7, 2014, we gathered and removed 101 wild horses," Lozano said. "Herd Areas are not designated for managing wild horses and burros like Horse Management Areas are. This means the BLM is supposed to maintain a zero population on HAs."
During a May 29 aerial survey of the HA, BLM officials counted about 282 mustangs but funding has not been authorized for additional wild horse round-ups, according to local BLM officials.
Since the gather ended in July, Lovelock Meadows Water District officials said they have not had trouble with horses but Duncan recently spotted mustangs near his cattle trough fed by municipal water. Other troughs on his allotment are in need of repair or replacement due to wild horse damage, he said.
For years, Duncan and neighboring cattleman Jim Estill have complained to range managers that excess wild horses are consuming the forage and private water needed to support free-range cattle.
Not satisfied by the July gather, Pershing County District Attorney Jim Shirley filed a federal lawsuit in September on behalf of county officials and local ranchers including the Duncan Family 2002 Trust. The complaint asks the court to order removal of all excess wild horses in Pershing County.
BLM officials have not yet responded to the complaint, according to Shirley. In his September press release on the lawsuit, Shirley said federal officials have ignored the horse issue and it ended up in federal court because "it appears that the only way to get a resolution is to ask for a court order."
"Pershing County and local ranchers have asked for years that the BLM eliminate the horses from herd areas," he said in the release. "Any herd area that has one horse has more horses than are allowed. BLM has failed to comply with statutory mandates under the Wild Horses and Burros Protection Act."
This week, Pershing County Commission Chairman Darin Bloyed said he doesn't buy the BLM claim that drought is forcing grazing reductions and temporary permits. Cheat grass is thriving despite the drought and massive wildfires will result unless grazing is allowed to reduce the threat, he said.
Bloyed and other county commissioners from around the region heard ranchers' complaints over recent BLM grazing regulations, based on "one size fits all" drought monitoring, that are "threatening the value of the grazing permit and the ranchers' ability to remain in business."
Last week, Pershing County commissioners approved the first reading of a draft resolution in support of the ranching community. Bloyed said other counties are expected to also approve the resolution with the goal of petitioning Congressman Mark Amodei to conduct a field hearing regarding grazing issues.
"There's something out there that we're not hearing and it's not drought," Bloyed said. "I've been out chukar hunting and I can't believe the amount of cheat grass that's out there. It's a ticking time bomb if we get some lightning. Drive to Cosgrave and look off to your left - there's miles and miles of it."
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