Andrea Joy Campbell: “Raising the grazing fees under the Bumpers amendment is fundamentally unfair to ranchers. This proposal does not fully…”

“Raising the grazing fees under the Bumpers amendment is fundamentally unfair to ranchers. This proposal does not fully consider the investments that ranchers already have made in building their lots. In addition, the profit margins for many ranchers is small, and many ranchers already have fallen into bankruptcy. Raising the fees as this amendment proposes to do will make things even more difficult for ranchers and may force more ranchers to exit the business during the next few years. Mr. President, a look at the increasing losses suffered by ranchers paints a bleak picture. In the business of ranching, analysts consider the industry average for the 'estimated calf break-even' prices in tracking trends. In the industry, we refer to the 'calf break-even price' to mean the cost of supporting a cow to produce a calf for a year divided by the weight of the calf. There are many costs associated with supporting cows, such as summer pasture, winter feed, breeding costs, health costs, veterinary visits, and medications. Producers in the northern regions, including my home State of Colorado, have even higher winter feed costs and have to pay more out-of-pocket expenses for the winter. In the fall of 1993, the estimated industry average calf break-even price was $81.95 per 100 weight. The average profit was $42 per head. Since then, however, the industry average shows increasing losses.”