Saw 1/20th of an acre of sale not far from you a while back...could be a sweet deal, just sayin'.

Can I get an Amen on that ?

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all the responses and enjoyed reading them. We are going to do our MLD surveys and see what the ranch has on it. Feed protein heavy, get all the waters 100%, get some cameras on the ground and go from there. This place wont be leased this year and may rest for several years depending on how much "Hunting" those other people did. If it's shot out I wouldn't want to lease it to anyone anyhow. Thanks again

When it comes to releasing there are allot of ranchers don't think the same way as you.
But it sounds like you’re going about it the right way sir

Good on ya

Many would bring in a group to help cover the cost of protein, help get the water working, help with the surveys and work to get it back to where it needs to be. Many groups wouldn't mind doing it. Good part about a lease that may be shot out, is you kind of get to start from scratch and build the herd back the way you want it. Good luck and keep us posted

Thanks again. I know some people would be willing to do it and pay for it but that kind of group is a special kind. Thats one of the reasons I turned to this forum first. I've had several messages of individuals interested and when I am comfortable offering it up again this will be the first place I go. Did see my first group of axis out there and one was a nice buck.

Wish you luck and sure understand where your coming from. If you don't need to lease it for the $, why would you? Nice large piece of land you can sure turn into a hunting paradise for you, family and friends.

Sounds like a squirrelly deal...

Id never dream of deer leasing our place, but that's because we bought it to hunt. If we didn't hunt im sure we would. I also think there are probably just as many landowners out there who take cattle off the place or forget to mention that there are cattle/goats/stock on a place when perspective lessees call and come look. I also feel with the way lease prices have risen recently that hunters would be stupid not to want certain things.

I hunted a place with cattle and goats and never worried about it, but 300 bucks for a year round deer and hog lease with exotics less than 40 miles from home and a shart ton of game... I was getting what I was paying for. If I was paying 3k for the lease I may have seen things differently.

Redchevy, ahh yeah!! $300 is weekend lease prices. I'd have dealt with it for 1k for that set up!!

we run a 14,000 acre ranch just east of there, neighbors to this place. Hey, if a hunter wanted to come in a pay what we make off the cow, sheep and goats, that'd be fine. But running a ranch takes more than a deer lease to pay the bills. If you want a place strictly for hunting and give the landowner no rights go buy your own place.

We don't lease anymore. Seems I always here the amount $10/acre thrown around. Ive never ran cattle goats or sheep, but how much do you make a year running stock on the place? If you leased it for $10 an acre that would be $140k with minimal costs.

Agree 100%, Hunting money is/should be just icing on the cake. I leased once, wouldn't do it again. The right hunters would be one thing, but going through the trial and error, IMO isn't worth the headache.

Considerably more than the hunting. Higher costs, yes, but more money.
90 cow calf pairs, sale the steer caves and heifers we don't use as replacements,1500 angora nannies that we shear twice a year and sale the hair. 600 kids this year, shear them, sale the hair for over $11 a lb, 225 yearling nannies to shear for $, 450 or so muttons, we shear twice a year for maybe $8-9 a lb, they can produce lots of hair. 62 billies to breed the nannies, get hair off of them too. Once the goat gets to old to produce or the kids we don't need as replacements sale for $75+ a head. Shear the sheep, sale the lambs. 230 or so Spanish goats that breed like it's the apocalypse. Etc.

I'd be willing to bet the hunters are ranting about the woman's stepson messing up their hunting deal by wanting to move livestock in while prices are high.

Caveman, Just out of curiosity, what were these guys paying for a spot in that area of the state that came with a doublewide they were using?

This place has MLD tags. They were paying $10 an acre. I didn't need the land Rifleman, but she had lots of water issues, tall dry grass, It would have helped both her and me out with getting the water fixed, letting my cows and or goats graze on new country, and getting that tall dead grass down were new richer grass could grow. not trying to get into the deer goat debate but MY belief is it is actually beneficial to run deer and livestock if done right.

I wouldnt have budged a bit either... and I would have a set of rules and regs that would be followed to the T.... If not let them leave... you can see how easy it is to fill a lease real quick.... by just posting this you got 4-5 offers to lease your place out... and they would probably pay more than what you were getting....

It takes a lot of killing to shoot out 5000 acres in that country. How many hunters were there?

Interesting read. Myself, for 10.00 an acre there would be a big reluctance on my part if that number of goats were being run unless I saw a clear picture from scouting the land that the browse was not negatively affected. Goats eat everything that deer eat and a whole lot more.

140K income from 14,000 acres is nothing......

Well there you go, that's what I was looking for, ive never ranched in my life. Not counting mineral I didn't know what you would be able to turn on it in a year. Buddy of mine has between 1200-1300 acres and their stocking rate is 16-17 cows. Don't know where his place is either.

There is a lot of added expense to ranching in that dry country that are be left out of this equation. The place in question also is smaller in acreage I am guessing.

I'm not a rancher either-but $10 an acre does not go very far if a place costs/is worth $1000-2000 an acre. On my little place would amount to about $4000/year. No way I would have folks with the run of the place on it for that amount of $$. And if I was willing to do so, certainly no way I would give up other income producing opportunities for that amount.

I bet its a pretty tuff row to hoe buying land and only using income from ranching to pay for it these days.

I would also think you need to take into account that what drives up rural land prices may be hunting?

To some extent no doubt. The real driver though is a bunch of new folks with oil and gas money in their pockets that can now afford some recreational land.