Hard Pill to Swallow

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Travlr said:
I don't think 4K per head would be outrageous. 5K would be getting there. That's considering they are average, run-of-the-mill cows. Replacement including cost of replacement. And the missing, damaged, dead calves or any that you can sell/raise and the costs of that end would have to be figured differently... but with the price of weaned calves it might hit close to what the cows are worth.

@CowboyRam I don't remember you mentioning if there were any calves left orphaned or whether the total number included calves that left a mother cow without.
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I don't think I mentioned it, but I have 10 more calves than I have cows right now.
 
TCRanch said:
I'm just so sorry you're going through this! I don't even know what to say or offer any advice, but my heart breaks for you. I'd be swallowing that pill with a bottle of Jack by now.
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I appreciate that. A week ago I had to really work at it to keep that stiff upper lip. It's still hard, but I am dealing with it better now; at least its not as hard.
 
Travlr said:
I don't think 4K per head would be outrageous. 5K would be getting there. That's considering they are average, run-of-the-mill cows. Replacement including cost of replacement. And the missing, damaged, dead calves or any that you can sell/raise and the costs of that end would have to be figured differently... but with the price of weaned calves it might hit close to what the cows are worth.

@CowboyRam I don't remember you mentioning if there were any calves left orphaned or whether the total number included calves that left a mother cow without.
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OK.. so you pretty much completely agree with what I said.. lol
 
CowboyRam said:
That is why I'm thinking of getting an attorney involved. If I don't I could end up giving them information that would work against me. I know darn well that they are going to do what is best for them.
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Then you lose. The lawyers get 40%. If the RR offered you $2500 a head, with an attorney involved, he would get $1k of it, and you would get $1500.
 
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Warren Allison said:
Then you ;lose. The lawyers get 50%. If the RR offered you $2500 a head, with an attorney involved, he would get $1k of it, and you would get $1500.
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Ya, you are right. It just may be better to take my lumps now as to later. I'm going to the ranch tomorrow to take some pictures of where they got out, and the quality of my cattle.
 
It may be totally different with the RR there but here they agree pretty quickly to what the value is. They build a new fence also. The reason is they dont want a lot of publicity about it and have to build hundreds of miles of fence whether there are cattle there or not. The deeds say they will maintain the fence and keep all brush clean out to the fence. Of course they don't but would cost a fortune to do it so they just agree to a price pretty quick.
 
Here the RR wasn't responsible for any sort of fence. If your cows got hit and slowed the train down or stopped it then you got a bill for the downtime. Fences were the farmers responsibility.
 
chevytaHOE5674 said:
Here the RR wasn't responsible for any sort of fence. If your cows got hit and slowed the train down or stopped it then you got a bill for the downtime. Fences were the farmers responsibility.
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It was put in the deeds when they bought the right of way here in the 1880's. Their way of getting people to agree i guess.
 
When the RR was put thru this area it was all virgin forest and nobody had a thought of cows or fence. Most the RR tracks were also on RR owned land not easements or leases. Now the one thru some of my land has become a snowmobile/orv trail.
 
chevytaHOE5674 said:
When the RR was put thru this area it was all virgin forest and nobody had a thought of cows or fence. Most the RR tracks were also on RR owned land not easements or leases. Now the one thru some of my land has become a snowmobile/orv trail.
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chevytaHOE5674 said:
A few areas here have closed also. Some landowners have been fighting them for years because the initial agreement said if it ceased to be a RR it was supposed to go back to the landowner. Many in government want it to be hiking and horse trails.
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It is open range here. I don't know if that law applies to the RR but I do know that if they hit a cow that they pay up. I also know if there is one that derails and they have to cross private land to fix it they pay through the nose for the right to cross your property.
 
Some were on leased land or easements and people fought. But the majority were owned by the RR. So the state claimed adverse position on the parts they didn't own to make trails that actually connect to places.
 
Here the RR is not much different than the highway. Fence in state means it's my responsibility to keep the cows in and pay for damages when they get out.

The former owner of this farm operated it while the RR was in service. I know for a fact he got billed on multiple occasions when the train had to stop for his cows.
 
I would just put name, address, how many cows, and the dollar figure per cow on their paper work. Pick a number that is plenty high to recover your loss. Submit it that way. If they do anything other than cut a check I would say well I guess I need to get a lawyer. Watch how fast they pay you because I guarantee you they don't want lawyers involved. 10-12 cows at $5,000 a head is peanuts to them.
 

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