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Deciding where to buy land to start

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Rwilliams

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I am in the process of selling my house so I can buy some property, raise cattle, and otherwise enjoy country life. The first 2 - 3 years would be strictly for my freezer and to see if I like the lifestyle change as much as I think I will.

Since my primary source of income allows me to work from home 100% of the time I am able to move anywhere in the country(USA), but I am currently looking at the Montana/Idaho/Eastern Washington area. Primarily because it is beautiful country and it would be a drastic change from South Texas where I currently live.

This past weekend I drove out to a local cattle ranchers place and talked to him about the realities of raising cattle in terms of costs, day to day tasks, etc. When I mentioned to him I was thinking the Northwest, specifically Montana, he shivered at the thought and started talking about the extreme cold and how it was a very challenging environment. When I asked him where he would choose based mainly on weather, but taking into consideration land prices he thought Northeast Texas or Southeast Oklahoma.

I would like to pose the same question to the experienced cattle ranchers here. Where would you choose? I will be posting the same question on a couple of other forums to try and get the question exposed to a diverse group of people.

Thanks in advance,
Robert
 
I'm in southern Saskatchewan just sitting on the northern border of eastern Montana.

It's only going to be 20 to 30 degrees below zero this next month, not really cold until the wind picks up. it only occasionally get to 40 below and for not more then a week or 10 days at a time.
That only happens in December, January, February and sometimes March.

Come do chores for me for a couple weeks and see how you like it. :cowboy:
 
Eastern Washington wont get that cold. Well maybe occasionally but certainly not every year. But I will tell you the trouble in that area. Before I retired in Western Washington I searched a lot for a place in the east side of the state. That would have put me a lot closer to family. I found nothing available that would work. I found a lot available in Eastern Oregon. The affordability depends on the housing on the ranch. There is a fair number where someone bought it and built a McMansion then decided they don't like the lifestyle. Of course they want to get paid for the house they built. Stay away from the Klamath Falls area. There are places that look pretty affordable but they are having serious water wars down there. Burns will look affordable but I can say my wife had a ranch in Harney County for 14 years. She says it is the arm pit of Oregon. But northeast Oregon is great in my opinion.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
I'm in southern Saskatchewan just sitting on the northern border of eastern Montana.

It's only going to be 20 to 30 degrees below zero this next month, not really cold until the wind picks up. it only occasionally get to 40 below and for not more then a week or 10 days at a time.
That only happens in December, January, February and sometimes March.

Come do chores for me for a couple weeks and see how you like it. :cowboy:
Click to expand...

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :nod:
 
I have a Cousin that is a Ranch appraiser work the western United States. He told me stay away from NM . Said the northern part the families have been there 400 years. They don't like outsiders. the Sothern part , well ranches close to the border look like good deals, but they have there problems. lot of NM is high 7000 feet, lot of forest permit and BLM operations .
 

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