Land Leasing - Texas 2019 prices

[lms0229]

Can anyone give me some insight into leasing rates in East and Central Texas for 2019? (Say in the areas south east of Waco but north of Houston and can be further east of I-45.) Various scenarios listed below.

1. Land has zero fencing, no water and lots of shrub pricing per acre:

2. Land has some fencing but needs some repairs and there is a pond but lots of shrubs:

3. Land has excellent fencing, creek or active well for a tank and has good pasture:

Thanks so much in advance! God bless

 

[Caustic Burno]

I pay 10.18 an acre in east Texas that's for hunting from the paper company.

 

[TexasBred]

We're getting $22.50 for pasture land fenced with a good grass, stock tank and working pen. Buyer responsible for all repairs, must fertilize annually and NOT stock with more than one cow per 5 acres.

 

[Bigfoot]

I have often thought, if somebody would fertilize my place and make an honest effort to keep the fences in order I'd just let them use it.

 

[bball]

Not in Texas, but i have the opportunity to lease a place this upcoming year for $65 an acre. Mostly sandy high ground that has been overstocked for several years, hasn't seen lime, fertilizer or weed control in a coon's age, fence is sketchy at best, water is a drainage ditch that runs along the eastern edge. I imagine 1 pair to 5 acres is how it should actually be stocked. However, this is the only pasture lease that has come available around me in 13 years. Few and far between here. Seems expensive to me, but the law of supply and demand???

 

[lms0229]

Thank you all for responding. Personally I don't believe in chemical fertilizers, because it inhibits the production of "communication" pathways given out by plants to soil bacteria and fungi in a mutual parasitic relationship. That is me though and everyone has their own beliefs. I have quite a bit of land/soil/native plant knowledge and would want to pass that along in rengerating the property from whomever I lease from, so their property could benefit. I grow a variety of very low tannin acorn oak trees and would plant small trees on their place and even offer advice on permaculture design for their pastures. I would only have my cattle there for part of the year to allow ample land rest time for grass recovery. I would love to rotationally graze but I work full time so I would only graze their property a portion of the year instead. I am friends with a Vet and all my cattle are seen by him regularly as I chose to A.I. and I steer any bull calves unless they are what I am after... which I cull very heavily. I vaccinate only some and when I do vaccinate, I will stagger their vaccinations. I keep a closed herd. I also deworm using only Cydectin as to not damage the dung beetles and earthworms and I only have to deworm once a year, because of current grazing practices and heavy culling. Anyway, all that to say if y'all know of anyone that has some land and would be interested in leasing it to me I would be more than happy to pay them fairly for it and offer property advice on restoring their soil and planting a few small trees if they were interested. Thanks again for the information.

 

[lms0229]

Here are some pictures of part of my property in March of this year after our heifers dropped their first calves.

 

[Bigfoot]

Not in Texas, but i have the opportunity to lease a place this upcoming year for $65 an acre. Mostly sandy high ground that has been overstocked for several years, hasn't seen lime, fertilizer or weed control in a coon's age, fence is sketchy at best, water is a drainage ditch that runs along the eastern edge. I imagine 1 pair to 5 acres is how it should actually be stocked. However, this is the only pasture lease that has come available around me in 13 years. Few and far between here. Seems expensive to me, but the law of supply and demand???

I'm letting a place go December 31st. Guy went to $70 and I paid it last year. Just can't justify doing it again. No way it'll pay. This place actually joined me. Didn't have to drive to tend it or anything. I'm gonna miss it, but oh well.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Poor MN pasture is often rented based on $/pair/month. U$S 25 is pretty common, and $30 is on higher side.

 

[kenny thomas]

Poor MN pasture is often rented based on $/pair/month. U$S 25 is pretty common, and $30 is on higher side.

Are you saying $25 to $30 a month per pair?

 

[Stocker Steve]

Poor MN pasture is often rented based on $/pair/month. U$S 25 is pretty common, and $30 is on higher side.

Are you saying $25 to $30 a month per pair?

Yes in the central part of the state, and this makes those big hungry cows potentially profitable. :banana: Some landlords do set a minimum number of pairs per pasture, so it depends on how the lease is set up.

Pasture rent varies about 300% across the state - - cheapest in the northeast (wolves have eaten most of the deer in places) and highest in the southwest (rolling row crop country).

 

[bball]

Poor MN pasture is often rented based on $/pair/month. U$S 25 is pretty common, and $30 is on higher side.

Are you saying $25 to $30 a month per pair?

Yes, and this makes those big hungry cows potentially profitable. :banana: Some landlords do set a minimum number of pairs per pasture, so it depends on how the lease is set up.

SS, I locked in a neighboring farms corn stalks for the next winter for essentially nothing. That coupled with the above mentioned lease has me scratching my head and considering adding another 20 pairs...
Winter forage isn't as much of a challenge as finding pasture ground during the spring and summer.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Cows prices are down here, but so are calf prices. AgWeb taking heads are forecasting a $10/cwt increase in calf prices next year. :???: Could be a bottom coming soon to a sales barn near you. Or not.

One idea would be shifting calving season to line up better with (free) forage? Another option would be to retain and over winter your calves on stalks with a little DDG... Or both.

Need to redo the forage available vs. forage consumed by month spreadsheet. Figurin matters.

 

[kenny thomas]

Poor MN pasture is often rented based on $/pair/month. U$S 25 is pretty common, and $30 is on higher side.

Are you saying $25 to $30 a month per pair?

Yes in the central part of the state, and this makes those big hungry cows potentially profitable. :banana: Some landlords do set a minimum number of pairs per pasture, so it depends on how the lease is set up.

Pasture rent varies about 300% across the state - - cheapest in the northeast (wolves have eaten most of the deer in places) and highest in the southwest (rolling row crop country).

How can those cows be very profitable when you can have 300-360 per year in them with just the pasture lease? Somehow I am not doing something right

 

[Stocker Steve]

The continuously grazed MN rental pastures usually hold cows for about 6 months, even though they are losing weight the last month or two. So it is $150 rent per summer per pair for pasture, then back home to regain weight on stored forage before the artic vortex arrives.

Hard here to buy hay cheap enough to generate a profit. Some go back to winter on "free" corn stalks, but KT is correct, stand alone cows not profitable most years. They may cash flow but that is not the same as profit. :shock: Seems like crop insurance and Trump checks prop up row cropping, and cows are a good way to utilize meadows, cropping residues, and by product supplements.

So commodity cows often don't make a good centerpiece business in many parts of the country, because they are not able to carry alot of overhead. Countless CT posts are in denial about this.

 

[bball]

The continuously grazed MN rental pastures usually hold cows for about 6 months, even though they are losing weight the last month or two. So it is $150 rent per summer per pair for pasture, then back home to regain weight on stored forage before the artic vortex arrives.

Hard here to buy hay cheap enough to generate a profit. Some go back to winter on "free" corn stalks, but KT is correct, stand alone cows not profitable most years. They may cash flow but that is not the same as profit. :shock: Seems like crop insurance and Trump checks prop up row cropping, and cows are a good way to utilize meadows, cropping residues, and by product supplements.

So commodity cows often don't make a good centerpiece business in many parts of the country, because they are not able to carry alot of overhead. Countless CT posts are in denial about this.

Jackpot! Worth repeating.

 

[Bob Kinford]

Not in Texas, but i have the opportunity to lease a place this upcoming year for $65 an acre. Mostly sandy high ground that has been overstocked for several years, hasn't seen lime, fertilizer or weed control in a coon's age, fence is sketchy at best, water is a drainage ditch that runs along the eastern edge. I imagine 1 pair to 5 acres is how it should actually be stocked. However, this is the only pasture lease that has come available around me in 13 years. Few and far between here. Seems expensive to me, but the law of supply and demand???

At today's prices it "might" work, but what happens when calf prices drop to under $2 as they most likely will? I'd suggest figuring out a regenerative grazing plan where the owner could be receiving money for carbon credits then approach the owner with your own lease agreement based on that.