In 1975 "the principal concern was the breakup of rangeland into crop- 

 land. This occiirred because of two related economic events: I) the drastic 

 fall in cattle prices, and 2) the dramatic rise in wheat prices. The fall 

 in cattle prices forced the rancher into an untenable economic situation. 

 In order to satisfy credit needs by increasing collateral, he was forced, 

 in some instances, into the breakup of rangeland. The reason for this was 

 that at the beginning of this breaicup period, rangeland was selling for S65 

 to $90 per acre and cropland was worth $500 to $550 per acre. When the cat- 

 tle prices fell, the ag-lenders were really pressured into looking at the 

 numbers in order to extend the lines of credit. This was a big factor in this 

 breakup of rangeland. Another factor was that of speculation. This specu- 

 lation factor is two fold. It involves the rancher who is gambling on con- 

 tinued high wheat prices in order to make some extra bucks and also the land 

 speculator. The land speculator viewed eastern Montana as a flat rolling 

 rangeland that could be bought cheaply, broken up, and then resold to some 

 sucker for 5 'bo 4 times more than what they had paid for it. High returns 

 on a short term which will probably result in an extensive abuse of the land. 

 It is difficult to control these events in a free enterprise system. A week 

 ago I was talking to a group of people at an economic development meeting. 

 This group was a high school principal that I knew to be a conservative man 

 and a good proponent of the free enterprise system. He asked, "Vhat are we 

 going to do about the breakup of our rangeland by those out-of-staters?" My 

 response was, "VThat can one do unless we pass restrictive land use legisla- 

 tion?" This kind of delineates the conflict we face. A short term solution 

 would be for the range people to accumulate information to assist in putting 

 this land back to grass as quickly as possible when the bottom falls out of 

 the wheat prices. The long term solution relates to what Prank Sparks stated 

 yesterday. He emphasized that in order to make the free enterprise system 

 work, one must assume responsibility for one's actions. The energy crisis 

 pointed out how interdependent our world has become. This same increasing 

 interdependence now affects the land management decisions which you and I 

 make. I guess the long term solution is the development of a land use ethic 

 on the part of the people and if this doesn't develop, then the pressures 

 will increase for restrictive land use planning. 



Overall success of Range Improvement Program - by and large, the ranchers 



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