I have about 100 acres in central TX that I do not run cattle and only use for recreational and hunting purposes. So my surprise when cattle started showing up on my game cameras and feeders and cameras knocked over with both the feeder and the motors destroyed on 3 occasion. This weekend I saw about 15 cows in different parts of my property. They were all younger cattle, black and unbranded and no ear tags. I determine that they come from a neighbors property and there were about 2 large holes in the 60% of fence line I drove before it turned wooded. I have never met the neighboring landowner but am told he is elderly and lives in a different city and leases his property out. I tried to access his property to speak to him but gates were locked. His mailbox has a green "vacant property" tag for the post office non delivery. I left a respectful note to his gate asking him to move the cattle or let me know if they are not his as they are unbranded.

I have no intention of rewarding the cattle with free corn at the expense of my feeders only to trash my deer season.

So, my question to THF members is how long would you give to get this problem addressed and if not solved what would you do?

Check your county. In some, it's your responsibility to keep them out. In other counties, it's the owner's responsibility to keep them off your property.

Fix the fence, call the sheriff, send landowner a bill for feeders and damage?

Appreciate the common sense replies!

Texas is still considered an open range state, depending on the county it may be your job to keep cattle off of your property. Not saying it’s right, but if it comes down to it, it may be completely on you to keep them out.

As others have stated, do a search to see if your county is a free range county. If it's free or open range, you are responsible to keep cattle off your property. If not, it's the neighbor's responsibility to keep cattle on their property.

If you do not live in a free range county and the neighbor is out of pocket, I would call the sheriff's department animal control officer for assistance. They may have a better chance of finding out whose cattle they are and making those contacts.

Call County Sheriff and he can tell you exactly What's Up.

If it isn't resolved pretty quick, about 150 bucks goes a long way at Tractor Supply for hotwire supplies.

If you don't have any way to positively identify who they belong to then I would call the sheriff. They may not belong to your neighbor or his lessee. You made an effort to contact your neighbor. You've done your part as a neighbor. I would fix the fence. As stated some hotwire and a battery powered fence charger is a cheap fix.

Call the sheriff.

Fix some pens.

Call some local cowboys to come pen & haul them off to the local sale & turn them in as strays.

Fix the fence or run an electric fence like mentioned above.

This works but don’t move them off property until you have sheriff permission, as it will be a double whammy as they will have to pay you damages and sale barn expenses to get their proper Back

Have you tried going to the Appraisal Office to look up the name of the landowner? Also majority of the CAD's now have interactive maps so you can look it up that way. If needed we have a service for work that looks up phone numbers, addresses, etc. if you need some help getting a number.

I would politely talk to him. I know of a landowner who had the same issue and his neighbor with much more land and deep pockets high fenced him on three sides, within one month. Property value went down and game animals were no longer traversing into his property.

Share expenses to fix fence. This is the most neighborly thing to do.

We experience the same thing from time to time. Less so since I made the effort to find out who owned them and went out of my way to contact them with a good neighbor solution. I did have a brand to work with tho. I took a pic of the brand and went to the closest feed store. The guy there acted dumb, then asked why I wanted to know. I told him they were on my land and if I couldn't find the owner I was calling the sheriff to come get them. I left my number and headed back to the property. Within an hour the owner of the cattle called me, and less than another hour he was at my property with a trailer and horses to load them up.

I offered to help with expenses and labor to repair the fence, he declined and apologized for the damage they'd done, even offered me some money. I declined the money, and we parted having a respect for one another that wasn't previously established. Now if he's missing cows he'll call and ask permission to go in and look for them, and if I find they've been in I walk the fence and repair it. Good fences make good neighbors, but a little understanding and respect goes a long way too.

^^^^^

Correct. It varies county by county as to whether or not the county (in part or in whole) is considered Open Range or Closed Range and is also animal specific.

Other considerations exist as well.

Basically, if the County has 'stock laws' in the OP's area that deem it Open Range (for cattle) then it is his responsibility to erect and maintain fencing. IF it is Closed Range then the responsibility lies with the Land Owner upon which the livestock reside.

https://www.mwl-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/TEXAS-STOCK-LAWS-BY-COUNTY.pdf

I had this problem. After a couple of times I realized that I was feeding the guys cattle which was his intention. It’s called stealing grass. Calling the County worked like dealing with government everywhere.

Then, I figured it out. I removed my front gate and called him. No law saying that I have to have a gate. He was chapped but it ended my problem.

and that, my friends, is using your noggin

Call the county Sherriffs department and ask for animal control groups number.
In Bastrop County, they wil capture andl haul it to the county impound area.

We had a rogue bull here that could jump a 6' pen like a gazelle, I know because he followed my cows into the pen and I managed to pen him - once!
He went from place to place visiting cows and folks gardens.
He showed up at my neighbors and camped in their garden, you could run him out and he would return within 20-30 minutes so they called the county animal control group.
They came out, darted him, gave him a little while to relax and put him right in the trailer and hauled him off.

Just did this in the other thread about cows on land. Go to this site https://agrilife.org/texasaglaw/home/

In the search function type in Fence Law Lots of good information.

All good suggestions and I thank everyone. Thought of leaving the gate open but they are black cattle and the thought of injuring a motorist at night was not an option. Never met the land owner and gate is locked so I cant just drive around his property looking for him. No ear tags and no branding either. Checking with the appraisal district is a definite possibility to trace him down.

I am going to head down this weekend and try to herd them out as best I can and patch the fences. Not going to continue to reward these cattle with corn from demolished feeders nor screw up deer season because of them bullying the deer away so they can get to the corn first.

Wish me luck.

Oh yeah, San Saba County. Seems similar people are having the same problems on this post and I looked it up. Open range county. Sheeeeet, gotta baby sit someones cattle if the owners dont want to .

Here is the link for the interactive map, you can have the owners name pretty quick.

https://www.sansabacad.org/interactive-map/

I think those cattle charged you!

Sheriff can find the owners i jad the same problem