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Soapweed

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Aztumbleweed

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Jul 30, 2005
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Location
Arizona
My owner is selling out and I should do pretty good. I see adds for places up in Nebraska I am native to Az. and have only worked in Nevada and New Mexico was wondering what carrying capacity is up there on average? On this place we are running about 6 to the section. Any advice you might have would be appreciated.
Thank You :)
 
Aztumbleweed said:
My owner is selling out and I should do pretty good. I see adds for places up in Nebraska I am native to Az. and have only worked in Nevada and New Mexico was wondering what carrying capacity is up there on average? On this place we are running about 6 to the section. Any advice you might have would be appreciated.
Thank You :)

Aztumbleweed, I assume you might be looking for a ranch job. If so, a good "clearinghouse" lining up potential employees with available ranch jobs would be the Sandhills Cattle Association, headquartered in Valentine, Nebraska. The phone number is: 1-800-658-0551. The web page for the SCA is www.sandhillscattle.com.

As far as carrying capacity on Sandhills ranches, it varies. A good average would probably be one cow/calf pair for 25 acres of land year around, or about 25 pairs per section (one square mile, or 640 acres). This would include the necessary hay ground providing winter feed.

Cherry County, Nebraska, is 96 miles east and west and 63 miles north and south. It has the most momma cows of any county in the United States. Population is one person per square mile, just the way we like it. It is as good a ranch country as there is. We have an abundance of water, both above ground and below ground, lots of grass, hay, and fresh air. The wind knows how to blow, but we depend on it to turn the windmills which provide fresh drinking water for the livestock. Temperature extremes are not unlike Siberia, but we know how to deal with it. It can get as low as 40 below zero and as hot as 120 above. Just dress accordingly. Come check it out.
 
Boy, Soapweed, you're quite the salesman :!: Makes me almost want to check things out over there (except it is so flat you can probably see the curve of earth) :wink: :wink:
 
It's really not all that flat. There are nice soapweed covered ranges of hills interspersed with good hay valleys. People either really like this country, or they think it is way too lonesome. Personally I hate to see "tourism" touted, because it is cattle country and dudes could ruin it. (I consider Ted Turner a dude of the highest magniTUDE.)

My philosophy has always been that I'd rather live in a ghost town than in a metropolis.
 
Hanta Yo said:
Boy, Soapweed, you're quite the salesman :!: Makes me almost want to check things out over there (except it is so flat you can probably see the curve of earth) :wink: :wink:

{Hanta Yo, not only are the Sandhills NOT flat, they sort of seem scattered willy-nilly, with no real sequence of drainage so it appears to us it would be very easy to get lost riding there. Here in SD, we can get on a high spot and see the lay of the land, so to speak, then follow the ridges or a creek in the general direction one needs to go and eventually succeed in getting to the desired destination. But, the Sandhills are beautiful and the grass is lush. We sorta like not having to put up much hay and let the cows "harvest" it themselves through the winter, though. Of course there are occasional tough winters where that won't work, but in the 47+ winters we have personally experienced here, it has been rare when we could not winter the cows out on pastures with very little supplementation (cake three days a week in the coldest weather).

MRJ}
 
Thank you Soapweed and everyone for your replies. We would probably be looking for some small place of our own. Was why I was asking about capacity see adds for places up there but they seldom list capacity. Arizona has just gotten so over run it is hard to do anything. Most that can do it are saleing out and heading to Texas or Oklahoma. I personally like not feeding cattle in the winter did that in Nevada one winter.
Thank Yo
 

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