By Rachel Dahl
Hayden Ballard brought a practical assignment for ranchers who depend on federal grazing: print the Forest Service’s grazing directive, read it, and take it to the next meeting with the people administering their allotments.
Then, he said, put specific requests in writing.
Speaking at R-CALF USA’s September 18 meeting at Nevada Livestock Marketing in Fallon, Ballard urged cattle and sheep producers to use the administration’s written direction when asking about lost grazing authorizations, vacant allotments and infrastructure damaged by wildfire.
“This isn’t going to be a silver bullet to fix that,” he said. But it gives producers something specific to bring into a discussion with their district ranger or forest supervisor.
For Ballard, the appearance was also a return to familiar ground. He told the audience he had placed third in a high school bareback riding competition in Fallon at age 18. Now 36, he was back to talk with fellow ranchers about keeping livestock on federal land.
He described a family history in southern Utah and northern Arizona reaching back to 1861. His great-great-great-grandfather bought range rights in 1917, he said, and the family still runs livestock on that allotment.
That background helped steer him toward law and work with federal-land ranchers. Ballard also told the audience he was serving a short-term USDA appointment advising the agriculture secretary on matters the department calls “lawfare,” including complaints involving federal grazing. He emphasized that he was speaking in his personal capacity.
His presentation reviewed the different histories of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands before turning to the question producers in the room were bringing him: What can they do now?
Ballard traced the administration’s grazing effort from its October 2025 beef-industry plan through the March 2026 USDA–Interior memorandum of understanding and the Forest Service’s June directive.
The June 12 direction sets a goal of restoring at least 500,000 head months within two years, directs action toward no net loss of animal unit months within allotments, and calls for making vacant and closed allotments available to the maximum extent possible. It also addresses consistency of future annual operating instructions and permits with the grazing direction. Those actions remain subject to applicable law. usda.gov
Ballard urged producers to find the document themselves and identify the provisions relevant to their own situations.
“Next time you have a meeting with your Forest Service folks, have that ready to go,” he said.
When an office says it cannot accommodate a request, he advised, ask how that answer fits with the written direction. His message was to move the discussion from a general disagreement to a specific provision and a specific explanation.
Wildfire recovery provided one example.
Ballard said producers had raised concerns about damaged fences and suggestions that virtual fencing could substitute for rebuilding. He pointed to language allowing virtual fencing and other alternatives to help livestock use unburned areas while physical infrastructure is restored. The directive says virtual fencing generally should not permanently replace rebuilding damaged or destroyed infrastructure. usda.gov
He encouraged ranchers to bring that language into conversations about their own burned allotments.
During questions, Ballard also addressed how durable the administration’s changes might be. A future administration could take a different approach, he warned. He argued that incorporating changes into agency handbooks and regulations would be an important next step.
For the present, he encouraged producers to use the direction already available.
That meant doing more than telling an agency employee they wanted an allotment reopened or lost grazing restored. In response to an audience question, Ballard urged ranchers to submit the appropriate application or a written request identifying exactly what they were seeking.
If an allotment once carried more livestock than it does now, he said, document the requested increase and submit it to the office. A conversation alone can leave little record of what was requested or how the agency responded.
“Write that down,” he said.
Ballard also encouraged producers to submit documented concerns through USDA’s complaint portal. He described those submissions as a way for staff to identify recurring problems and develop recommendations for policy and regulatory changes.
A submission, in his telling, was part of a feedback process: producers identify what is happening on the ground, and staff compare those experiences with the direction issued in Washington.
His closing advice returned to the individual allotment. Read the policy. Make the request. Create a written record. If implementation falls short, document the problem and report it.
For ranchers looking for a way to act on the administration’s grazing promises, Ballard’s message was to start with the paperwork in front of them.
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