The BLM ~ Office of Mis-Management
Now if a cowboy has ranched on private land the most of his life, he don't
know what Hell really is. No one can come into the ranch, unless they have been
invited. The gates and cattle guards are locked - not to be unfriendly, but if
people don't need to be there, that is what that lock is for. Kind of like what
city people do to their homes when they go somewhere. You do not want the
Federal Government or any government coming in without a welcome to look around.
I think it is called freedom - one of the ones that we are supposed to have.
If a cowboy does happen to run on to a ranch that is BLM land, he had better
watch out. BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management. run by the Federal
Government. In other words, they are there to tell you how to be a cowboy. They
have been to school, read all the books, got a degree in it. But they also have
the gun, so to speak, so there’s not much that you can do.
Cowboys have always been free sprits, and they damn sure don't like barbed wire.
They obey the law and respect it. Oh, maybe on a Saturday night they might get a
little out of hand. But they don't like being told how to do something that they
do best. That is taking care of horses and cattle. That is what most were born
to do. They don't tell a banker how to run his bank, or a doctor how to doctor.
Cowboys have enough trouble with Mother Nature, rattlesnakes, locoed horses to
have to mess with the Federal Government.
Here is an example. See if this makes any kind of sense to you because it is
true. We had an old ranch in southern New Mexico. It was sixty percent BLM land,
thirty percent New Mexico State land. The other ten per cent of this God
-forsaken country, we tried to own. We leased the other land we had inside our
fences from the government.
I am not real good with facts and figures, but this will be close enough for a
cowboy to understand. The BLM was first started in the 1930's I think, somewhere
around there. In our part of the country, the BLM had just one office and that
was in Las Cruces, New Mexico. There was one man who ran the office. He had two
women who were his secretaries. They took care of all the ranch allotments for
the southern part of the State. From the Arizona border to the Texas border on
the East, to around Socorro, New Mexico north of Las Cruces. He would try to
make his yearly rounds to each of the ranches, just to visit. He was not trying
to push in government power on the rancher, just say howdy.
Over the years, the ranches have no doubt changed ownership from time to time.
But as far as I know, God only made so many acres of that old land when he was
building land. As far as I know, God has not taken any of that land away from
Mother Earth. For the most part, just about everything has stayed the same, as
far as the ranches go.
Everything but the BLM. It has grown to a size that one would not believe.
They have more people than the ranches have cattle. They don't know how to run a
ranch, but they will still tell you how. Their prices that you have to
pay for the use of the land cannot be met for what you get. They watch your
every move, even though they don't know what you are doing.
Since no more land has been created by God, why have more people that don't know
what they are doing take care of it?. Why hire people that you don't need to do
a job? Isn't that called overgrazing?
BLM ranches are based on allotments, meaning the number of cattle that you can
run. In New Mexico the allotment number is also the basis for what a ranch can
be sold for. Our ranch allotment was 320 head, which we were never able to run.
With all the dry years we had, we were lucky to ever get by with 200 head.
When my Dad died in 1980, Mom and I decided to sell the ranch. We had a good
buyer. But I guess the old Devil got wind of this, ‘cause we got a letter from
BLM. It stated clearly that within a matter of months, our allotment would be
cut. It would not be cut, Hell it was to be gutted. We would have only been able
to run around a hundred head, with no reduction in what our lease amount was.
After my Dad's death, my nerves were not good. I never did have any use for the
BLM, and this did not help that cause. I made a trip over to Las Cruces one
afternoon for a visit. I got some Yankee - he did not know a bull from a cow. He
did not know where our ranch was, but he knew all about it. He told me that old
ranch had been overgrazed for many years, and the cut was needed. I tried to be
nice. That was not easy. I explained to him that it had not been overgrazed.
It had not rained for fifty years. You see without rain, not too much will grow.
Then he got out his book, this is what he told me. A cow unit needs eight pounds
of grass just for a bare existence. I told him that old place never did have a
blade of grass on it while I had been there. Our cattle ate weeds, yuccas,
mesquite and whatever we gave them out of a bucket. Well, that was not in his
book, so that could not be. I knew that I was not going to win this war with
this halfwit. So I left and never went back. We sold the ranch, I rolled my bed
and headed for Texas. This was over twenty years ago. I wonder how management is
doing today. Thank God I don't have a BLM ranch. I may not have much, but not
that,