Cattle Guy Overgrazing Property

[jds247]

You can tell not many folks know much about good livestock management on here. 10 head on 100 acres most definitely is having an impact to the resource, no question about it at all unless he is running many pastures and has a very intensive rotational strategy in place. And, that is if there are 100 grazable acres (which there probably isn't). If he's doing what most do, he's either continuously grazing it (the absolute worst grazing strategy), or at best, he's divided the place in half and grazes one side to nothing and then moves them to the other side (second worse grazing strategy). Stocking rate is not near as important as stocked density and duration in a pasture, but even at low stocking rates, the 2 grazing strategies just mentioned are very bad when considering the effects to the habitat, plant species composition change, and the overall effects to wildlife. Carrying capacity means different things to different people, and as a result there are different 'carrying capacities' for a property. True carrying capacity, the number of animals a property can carry without impacting vegetation health or causing species composition change is substantially lower than most people think. That's why its exceedingly rare now to find native stands of big bluestem, little bluestem, switchgrass, indiangrass, sideoats grama, eastern gammagrass, etc. While 10 cows can 'survive' on 100 acres, they can't do it without having an impact, which is what the OP is talking about. And, if you have to feed in the winter, you are either overgrazing to the point that you must provide the additional nutrition or you enjoy wasting money, one of the two. The entire goal of successful grazing management is to not have to provide feed at any time. Bison never walked around looking for a sack of cubes. The purpose of feeding is to intentionally carry more animals than the land will support.

Different regions have different feeding needs.. During the summer down here you can run 1 cow per 3 acres and still need to mow.. around December any standing bahia grass is nothing more than paper because of all the rain..
A cow will starve if you don't feed hay.

[sharpstick35]

Ive got a neighbor up the road that overgrazes sheep and goats. In dry years even the trees are bare up to 5 ft. though I'm not in east Texas, my area is notorious for overgrazing. It was a contributing factor to the die off last winter

[bloodtrailer28]

Surely your joking right? You ever run any cattle?

You'll find out soon enough TF doesn't know Jack **** but it surely doesn't stop him from acting like he does.

[bloodtrailer28]

Something here isn’t adding up. I have 15 head on 50 acres with grass to spare during the growing season. I’m feeding hay now, but I still have standing grass over 10 inches.

Shutting off water and draining ponds is a chicken sh*t move.

There’s much more to this story that’s not being told.

All depends on the land and amount of grazing which the op covered. If your overgrazing my place and I politely ask you to take some cows off and you don't....I wouldn't have waited 6 months for you to do so and I wouldn't be as nice as the OP has been.

[Burnadell]

OP, you still have not answered the question of which county this is in. You have asked for advice yet you won't answer questions.

Who prepared the lease agreement...an attorney...or is it a standard form?

It must be pretty poor land since most of East Texas is fertile and supports considerably more livestock than your tenant is running.

[Fmjag64]

post #60 pretty much spells it out.
And just because your property will hold 15 head on 50 acres…there’s something missing? As stated several times on this thread, every property is different. The cattleman is taking advantage of the missing verbiage in the contract. I can promise you the OP isn’t getting rich off of the grazing rights to 100 acres.

I don't think he is taking advantage of anything. This clearly is not a grazing property if it cannot hold 10 cows and if he's paying standard rate money, he's getting ripped off. The issue might be calling this "100 acres" when it sounds like there might be 20 acres of actual grass. Would be very interested to know what the rancher is paying annually. If paying standard per acre for 100 acres OR if he's paying a discount prorated per acre since apparently there's not much grass.

[Shane]

Surely your joking right? You ever run any cattle?

He's all hat....

[Backwoods101]

I don't think he is taking advantage of anything.

The cattlemen admitted to overgrazing it because the OP didn’t have a set # of head in the contract


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[Fmjag64]

The cattlemen admitted to overgrazing it because the OP didn’t have a set # of head in the contract


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Not doubting the OP but two sides to every story my man. Also various opinions on what overgrazing is. My poor grandpa might've agreed too in his older age to avoid confrontation but at the end of the day if you pay for 100 acres of grazing in ETX and it wont hold 10 cows, someone got hosed.

[JeffK]

10 cows per 100 acres should not be a problem but not familiar with your area. He may be overgrazing depending on how you define it. Feeding hay does not mean it is being overgrazed. If anything, that will help keep the cattle from browsing in the brush. How much are you charging for the lease? Do you have it priced for a place that can only support a cow per 25 acres?

Remove the water and you will be the talk of town if not already.

[Barney1971]

Start by telling him the lease won't be renewed this year. Give him 45 days to remove all of his cows. I wouldn't play games with him . It sounds like he doesn't respect you or your opinion of your property

He does have a place to take them . It's call the sale barn.

this 100% leased my place out for a long time to same outfit-- gave them 6 weeks notice after getting tired of seeing huisatche, seanybeans, and 2' tall anthills in good pastures. i will bet theres plenty of people in your area that would lease your place and take better care of it..

[BrianL]

A lot of this doesn't add up.... In Lamar county(NE TX) we can run 3 acres:1 unit even 2:1 but feeding hay in winter is a given and the larger the #s the more you have to hay in the winter. Standing dormant grass in NE Texas is a filler, but little to no nutrition, and they need BOTH filler and nutrition. It cost way more to feed than to graze, and an old rancher will know that, and most want at least 8-10 cows per bull.

Once bermuda goes dormant you could burn the tops off and wouldn't hurt the spring/summer greenup as it comes up from the roots.

[eastover53]

Overgrazing on year 2 on a 5 year lease? I can’t wrap my head around why a rancher would intentionally do that.

I can understand a jackass grazing it down to scorched earth on year 4-5, but not year 2. He’s got to deal with that problem for three more years.

I’d like to hear the rancher’s reasoning/plan.

[Farmdog]

If A landlord looks at me wrong he can have his land back, you sound nightmarish to me

[Duke1227]

Run him off!!