Forage Acquisition

Today, March 2024, there are more wild horses held captive in off-range corrals than there remain wild on public lands.  The forage needed by government programs to sustain animals already removed from their native homes must be produced on government managed land.

Both the BLM and Forest Service Wild Horse and Burro programs should be required to produce the forage they feed equines in holding as part of their program operations.  The procurement of forage on the open market by the government should be discontinued.

The requirement to feed the 82,000 animals now held by the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program is driving the commercial price of hay higher every month.  This has been an ongoing trend for multiple years.  The forage needed to feed those in holding should be grown and harvested from lands the BLM, FS, and NPS already manage.  

Taxpayers throughout the US are injured by the rising cost of equine forage.  The BLM and FS programs claim to be executing this arbitrary removal to better the environment.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The government is executing the agenda of the private livestock industry in the Western states.  Upon the removal of wild horses and burros the BLM and FS permit increased livestock grazing.  This increase only benefits the livestock industry and often a very few, privileged wealthy corporate operations.  

Taxpayers are being manipulated into taking equines from the government roundups and from rescue operations that stem from unlawful secret disposal of animals.  The taxpayers then suffer the elevated maintenance costs of forage price increase caused by the same government program which is creating both the shortage of forage and the excess of animals needing placement.

The production of livestock on Western US public lands amounts to 2 percent of the beef consumed in the United States annually.

Two scarce resources come into play in production of equine forage.  There must be adequate water and suitable land to grow the types of plants palatable to the equine species being fed are required.  The government land managers have control over both of these resources in selected locations.  This request does not constitute an insurmountable requirement.

With the BLM and FS planning to round up an additional 20,000 animals in 2024 the case for eliminating government procurement in the commercial market is simply magnified going forward.

There are 9,410 wild horses held in Off Range facilities in Kansas