Program aims to bring local cattle, grass together

Landowners and livestock producers might get a chance to help each other.

The latter need food for their cattle.

The former sometimes need their grass mowed.

Since cattle’s affinity for grass is well-established, the potential, should the two situations coincide, is obvious.

But the problem in the past has been managing leases between the grass owners and the ranchers.

Ken Anderson from the Baker Valley Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts is planting the seeds of a solution with local ranchers and landowners.

“We are getting an inventory of available grasslands and users who may have the need and you mix these two together,” Anderson said.

A Grass Bank is a collection of land, both public and private, set aside for conservation and improvement of grasslands.

Anderson said a Baker County Grass Bank could rescue ranchers who have to move their livestock from the area they were expected to graze due to unplanned problems such as wildfires.

“The Grass Bank will have grazing land in reserve as a potential contingency,” Anderson said.

Federal law requires, for instance, that some public lands which otherwise are open to grazing be off-limits to livestock for two years after a fire.

During that two-year period, livestock producers need to find alternative forage for their cattle. Most of the time they have to lease property from another landowner.

Some landowners are leery of letting livestock temporarily graze their property, either due to a bad experience in the past or because they don’t know how to arrange details of the lease, including price.

The Grass Bank will help landowners work through such problems, Anderson said.

“A lessee may not be meeting the terms of a lease and the landowner is uncertain on how to resolve (any land management problems),” he said. “Suppose you own 1,500 acres and decide to enroll in the Grass Bank.... staff works with you to complete a conservation plan, determining the land’s grazing capacity and identifying the management terms and conditions that are acceptable to you.”

An example of such a condition is a landowners who doesn’t want yearlings on their property because young cattle tend to roam and are harder to manage.

Other landowners might want the animals to consume no more than half the grass.

For landowners, the Grass Bank could charge a service fee of up to $3 per animal unit. The actual price would depend on what services, if any, the Grass Bank provides.

“Let’s say you are a landowner and want to do all the leasing and management of your property but want to still support and be involved in the Grass Bank — in this case there would be no service needed,” Anderson said.

The livestock producer would pay the Grass Bank the fees for land usage, and the Grass Bank would then pay the landowner essentially eliminating any problems between the two parties.

Anderson said the Grass Bank can’t guarantee that landowners will receive the full price they want, though.

“If you wanted $5,000 yearly and we could only offer $4,500 we would try to work something else out,” he said.

Anderson plans to have a local Grass Bank in full operation by next summer.

For more information on the Grass Bank and how to get involved, you can call Anderson at 541-523-7121, extension 110 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it