Do you want wide open spaces?

[Dave]

I see that Jett Blackburn Reality has the Moffett Bros ranch by Brothers Oregon listed. 7,284 acres deeded, 55,967 acres of BLM, and 93,000 acres of Forest Circus permit. 156,251 total acres to roam on searching for your cows. The ranch runs 500 cows. That is 312 acres per cow. You will need a good remuda and I would want quality binoculars to look for cows. They are running on using only 500 tons of purchased hay but there is a permit to develop 320 acres of irrigation. Just need to drill a well and install a couple of pivots and raise that hay. The asking price is only $3,950,000. That is less than $8,000 per animal unit. Not bad, I see lots of western ranches priced at $10,000 per AU.

 

[shaz]

You would be profitable in the few thousand years. Sell your Game Stop stock and jump on it!

 

[greybeard]

156,251 total acres to roam on searching for your cows. The ranch runs 500 cows. That is 312 acres per cow. You will need a good remuda and I would want quality binoculars to look for cows.

Drones or dang good contract with a satellite photo company

 

[Dave]

You would be profitable in the few thousand years. Sell your Game Stop stock and jump on it!

It would turn a profit. Pretty cheap operating expenses. Just get them down to 2.5 mil and come in with a million down. You have to look at it in per cow price.
I once saw an ad for a ranch that said this is "horse crippling, dog killing country where your only neighbors are native Americans and jackrabbits." The same would go for this place. Except the neighbor part. There wont be any neighbors on this place. And I do mean none.

 

[Dave]

Drones or dang good contract with a satellite photo company

That might tell you where they were. They could be a long ways from there by the time you get there. It is 244 square miles and there probably isn't anything that can be mistaken for a road through most of it. Some 4 wheel drive 2 tracks that you can do 10 mph on.

How far out can drones be controlled? What about when it goes out of sight over a ridge or mountain? Satellite wont works so well when the cows are laid up under a juniper tree

 

[SmokinM]

Makes me wish I had money. Sounds like paradise to me!

 

[Silver]

Must be a real hard scrabble place to only handle 500 cows. I think I'll take a hard pass

 

[Dave]

Must be a real hard scrabble place to only handle 500 cows. I think I'll take a hard pass

High dessert. Cows graze at a fast walk.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

United Country Jett Blackburn Real Estate Inc. - Moffitt Ranch For Sale In Brothers Oregon

$3,750,000 - 56255 Moffitt Brothers Rd, Brothers, Oregon, 97712

www.jettblackburn.com

 

[Lucky]

Sounds like a deal. I'm not familiar with how BLM leases work or the Forest lease. I never figured it or thought about it until today but I'm at a touch over $8,000 an animal unit and land is going up fast. You'd be at 10-12k on land purchased in my area today.

 

[Dave]

Sounds like a deal. I'm not familiar with how BLM leases work or the Forest lease. I never figured it or thought about it until today but I'm at a touch over $8,000 an animal unit and land is going up fast. You'd be at 10-12k on land purchased in my area today.

The actual cost of leases in money to the BLM or Forest Circus is dirt cheap. The real costs are in the distances and time to preform what many would consider quick easy tasks. The grazing contracts are written up of 10 years at a time. You own the grazing rights but at contract time they can change some of the rules as they see fit. The biggest hit is a reduction in numbers. You can make some changes too. For example one of my neighbors has a BLM allotment on a couple sections. It called for going in on September 1 and out by October 31. He changed it to October and November as his cows were on another parcel until October.

 

[C-Ranch]

I like my BLM permits and can usually (within reason) adjust my turn out dates as needed. I know some offices are a bit more strict, but my allotment manager has been great to work with. Wish I could find another permit to buy.

 

[GoWyo]

The BLM and even Forest Service has been easier to get along with the past 4 years. With the cow haters back in the executive branch, I predict that within the year the field staff get harder to get along with and AUM cuts will be the game along with tighter utilization, stubble height and stream bank restrictions. I will be surprised if the cheatgrass control efforts using grazing continue for the next 4 years. They will let it burn before they will concede that livestock are part of the solution.

 

[C-Ranch]

Yeah I'm afraid you may be right. One of the guys in the field office lives in town and he has said the same thing, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

[Bigfoot]

I kinda played with the mortgage payment on that over 20 years. If you had a 95% calf crop, and grossed $700 on every calf steers and heifers alike.....The gross barely meets the mortgage. I have no idea, of the operating expenses in a place like that. If your buying bay for $120 a ton, that's another $60,000 alone. Would it actually pay for itself? You ain't working off the farm running 500 cows. In fact, your hiring some help.

 

[Dave]

I kinda played with the mortgage payment on that over 20 years. If you had a 95% calf crop, and grossed $700 on every calf steers and heifers alike.....The gross barely meets the mortgage. I have no idea, of the operating expenses in a place like that. If your buying bay for $120 a ton, that's another $60,000 alone. Would it actually pay for itself? You ain't working off the farm running 500 cows. In fact, your hiring some help.

That is why I said you need to negotiate the price down to 3.5 mil and come in with a mil down. With 5% interest and a 90% calf crop the interest on the mortgage is $277 per calf.
And you sure aren't working a town job from this place because it is a long long ways to the nearest town.

 

[C-Ranch]

There have been some farm/ranches go for sale the last two years and prices have been through the roof. Like Bigfoot, I have tried penciling out the costs three ways to Sunday. However, without putting at least half down it just doesn't pencil out when you figure in the additional operating expenses, hiring more labor, Equipment etc. I'm sure the big guys can make it work, but don't I think I could sleep at night.