Draper, I get your point and even agree to a point. But when it is more rented land, or land that you get for nothing so the owners can get their land use tax breaks, there is no way we are putting money into fences that we aren't guaranteed to have more than that year. Many places come with both pastures that the fences are "wished there" and totally unfenced fields that are used for hay. So many do not have any water. I am not sinking 15,000 into a well and such without a deed in my name. It is figured here through the county extension and ag groups, and talking to many of the graziers here, that the minimum cost to keep a cow is at the low end 275. to high of 500. per head. If you own the land outright, then you still need to expense the taxes and upkeep through the cows. Otherwise, why have the land? Most of our rents run about 10./acre per year when you average them all out. Have a 28 acre place that is 1000 per year and a 90 acre place that is 1000 a year. Several we don't pay for and a couple that we pay 200./month for but they are crossed fenced, waterers, and improvements. Several we get to keep equipment in the barns or sheds.
Thing is there will always be the ones around here that want to own a piece of the country.... buying 20-50 acre "estates" that they have no intention to farm, don't know diddly squat about it and want it kept up so they can "Look out over their land". These we get for nothing and make some okay to pretty decent pasture/native grass hay. Sometimes it may not be worth the fuel but if they are next door to a presently rented farm then there is next to no cost to transport the hay back to the farm. On good years we have left over...on drought years we have been saved from buying expensive hay and been able to make it. We sell enough small square bales of orchardgrass ( 2-3,000) and about 100-150 rolls of hay per year to offset quite a bit of the cost of making the hay to feed ours. There are several graziers here and they do pretty well. One said on a "pasture walk" seminar on his farm that the first thing you need when you get serious about grazing, is a barn full of hay for insurance....and I have never forgotten that. If it dries up as it did in the southeast and in the Texas areas, those dried up pastures can't grow and feed a cow so that hay we are making will keep us going.
