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Grazing use agreements

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longjohn

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east colorado
I have always thought the words "head" and "pair" were synonimus when talking about grazing use agreements. My new landlord does not seem to think the same way I do.
They seem to just come up with this idea now that the calves are getting big enough to really make a showing. I would like to know how the rest of you use these words.
 
longjohn said:
I have always thought the words "head" and "pair" were synonimus when talking about grazing use agreements. My new landlord does not seem to think the same way I do.
They seem to just come up with this idea now that the calves are getting big enough to really make a showing. I would like to know how the rest of you use these words.
Click to expand...

Might be better to use "Animal Units" for grazing leases.
 
Down here where i am at in West Texas people who lease out there ranches do it by the acre, and not the head or pair or animal unit. This isn't prolly the smartest thing to do, cause it just lets the lessee run as many head as he wants to and if he isn't a "sound" rancher or manager, he can very quickly turn a ranch into ****. Which unfortunantly is what happens way to much around here.

Example, there was a section of land south of Odessa, Texas that the lessee ran 50 head of cattle on!! HAHA....it should of only had about 10 head, and that might of been iffy considering the look of the country. Anyway, the result of the 50 head the pasture now looks like a plowed field with mesquite bushes. It will takes several good years (which west texas is short on) to make the pasture even close to what it was before. All from one piss poor manager and about 4-5 months of grazing. So naturally the mesquite, cactus and everything else strive on those conditions and bam...all of a sudden you have a piece of land thats worth about as much as a broken-peckerd bull!

A lot of the ranches down here where i'm at lease out for as little as $0.25 - $0.50 an acre. But it might take 200+ acres per animal unit to if your in the scrub country or sand dunes.

Anyway, thats just what i noticed since i've been in Texas how people down here lease grazing by the acre and not by head or pair of livestock. I say down here, anyway around the Eldorado, Texas area(Schleicher/Sutton and Crockett Counties) and Midland/Odessa area (Ector and Crane Counties). Some of you native Texas might have a different story...if so let me know.... :???:
 
Never known much west texas ground to ever support more'n 1 cow per 100 or so acres... dirt n mequite is just about all there is out there anyway. (oh yeah..n wind)
Out here most places lease by the acre. They dont specify how many head they will allow.. guess that's one of the unspoken rules...or ya could say courtesy. ya should take care of the land like it's your own, even if your leasing it. round here it's somewhere round 10.00 acre but we have lots of grass. Most will lease for fence upkeep the first year. Then if you do any improvements they take that off of the price. Some will lease (we are in the process right now of tryin to lease like this) for mowing and or keeping pastures clean of weeds and underbrush, be it by grazing or with a tractor.
 
here in NE nebraska, with the small amount of gound i lease, it's either per head/month for yearlings, or per pair/month for pairs. but i have a guy who has a small herd of cows, so it works out well for grass supply for his yearlings or his fall calving cows, or like this year, for both. he's also responsible for weed spraying and fence maintenance supposedly, but after this year, i'm going to get a legal, in-writing agreement since i did all the fence repair after his fence-crawling, hunter-jumper heifer was here for 2 months, not to say the pasture was never sprayed, which will have to come out of my pocket now.

so, figure a going price for your area, including the terms, get it IN WRITING so everyone is perfectly clear on their responsibilities, and go. but get it IN WRITING, with signatures. you'll need the documentation if it ever ends in court. protect yourself.
 
Writing is huge!!!!!! Makes bot sides step back and realize what they are in for and puts enforcability into it.

Longjohn, I have been there and had to eplain to "new" folks what a pair is. In my book the calf isn't weaned. I have never pushed it to calves more than 7 months old, but I do understand what you are going through. I had a guy that heard pasture was going for $15.00 a head so he expected $30.00/ pair. Actually, pairs were goin for about $20.00/month, but he was hard headd. i went elsewhere, he didn't get any takers, so he dropped his sights about 1 1/2 months into the grazing season. Gras was nearly headed out, it did so a few weeks later...

PPRM
 
As more and more city folks buy up ranch and farmland, it makes it harder on ranch folks who know how business is normally conducted. City folks need educated and the first guy that comes along usually doesn't get to do it; it more or less would be about the fourth or fifth, depending on how open-minded they were...

It gets fustrating dealing with someone who hasn't a clue. I've heard some stories that would blow you away. Again, truth is stranger than fiction.
 
That's why I like horses better than people.... A horse generally will only try something 2-4 times at most if it doesn't work, then they look to do something else.....Peoplewill try to do something that doesn't work for a lifetime,,,,
Look at how long some of the guys on this board have tried to change each others views, :lol: :shock: :shock: :eek: :) :shock: :x :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:



PPRM
 
$10 to $15 an acre per year and the renter has to bush hog once a year to keep the weeds down. I guess it is all in the weather.
 

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