Meghan Lally works full-time on Ladder Livestock Ranch, just over the northern border of Colorado in Savery, Wyo. She grew up there, and she came back after college to help manage the sheep and cattle.
It’s a costly business being a rancher. There’s all the equipment, the transportation fees, production materials and more. The American Farm Bureau reports that ranchers and farmers only receive 15 cents on average for every retail dollar spent on food.
“(We) generally produce food below the cost of production,” Lally said. But her ranch gets some help by participating in the Grassland Conservation Reserve Program. The program started soon after the 2018 Farm Bill was passed as a way for ranchers to get paid by the Farm Service Agency to protect a variety of grasslands. This allows farmers to protect the grasslands while continuing to maintain the land for grazing. Lally signed up last year, and her ranch gets $13 per acre of land conserved…