The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) told him and many others to stop allowing their cattle to graze on public land as has been done for scores of years. They also want past grazing fees of a huge sum or to confiscate his ranch. They also have leased these lands to gas fracking companies and they don't want the cattle or people to get sick and die from the fracking ops because it's negative publicity. Far better to shoot them with machine guns and sniper rifles from helicopters. Efficiency is secondary only to safety.