Big Muddy rancher said:
So to lease BLM land does it have to be working ranch or do they just lease to the highest bidder?
It has to be a working ranch and have so many deeded acres. Half deeded and half BLM is fairly common.
In fact, there are instances where it is possible to have more BLM than deeded acres, depending on what the deeded acres can support. For instance, if the deeded was all irrigated,or had a high amount of irrigated,
and a lot of hay/forage could be harvested there could be a larage BLM allotment attached to the deeded ground.
I think this happens a lot in the Basin country. The ground that isn't irrigated over there doesn't run many cattle. We used to say a cow had to have a mouth a foot wide and travel 20 miles an hour to get enough to eat in a day. Or a grasshopper needed to pack a lunch.
Remember, the BLM ground was less desirable ground so wasn't homesteaded years ago.
At times the BLM is checkerboarded through the deeded ground making acess troublesome,
unless you owned the deeded acres. It's not all that desirable, but itcan add carrying capacity to a ranch.
Now that pipelines are possible, a lot more BLM is useable. Many times, there was no water on BLM ground.
Hope this helps explain it. There isn't nearly as much BLM gound in Western Montana as there is in Eastern montana.