Need advice about a neighbor

[jcummins]

We started a cattle operation last year. We also was lucky enough to find a decent piece of property, that is just pasture, no buildings. This property is a little ways from our resident, so we don't see the cattle every day, nor every week. But we have many good neighbors that keep a watch on things….except one.

We learned early on that just about everybody has had a run in with this guy. His place is very trashy, and he's obviously one that is going to bend the rules to the limit. And this is the problem. Let me say first, I'm not even in Texas at the moment, so I have not seen this first hand. Nor has my son-in-law who is part of our operation, and who called me about the situation we just learned about.

What we learned. Some of the cows on our place and a very good bull belong to a friend of ours that has them on our place over the winter. This friend was there today and found neighbors cows in our pasture, not sure how many. But also the bull was penned with one of the neighbors cows separate from the rest…and they had no water to boot. Appears, this neighbor is using the bull to service his cows. This friend walked the fence…there are no breaks. There is a gate, and it was closed. This means to us this was intentional, not accidental.

First reaction…is probably like anybody's would be, but I don't want to go to jail over this, he's not worth my jail time. After giving a little pause and thinking about it, several ideas come to mind. We obviously have to personally size up the details before anything else. I've already told my son-in-law, get somebody, other neighbors etc….to personally see this, before getting these cows off our place. I know there is allot of experience on the forum. What would you do? What are our legal options? How much of a hurt can I put on this …less than honorable neighbor over this?

 

[backhoeboogie]

There are possibilities and circumstances at times.

Consider, it just could be that the cow and bull were winking at one another over the fences and the cow or bull crossed over. Maybe even a couple of times. To preclude recurrence he just penned them and fixed the fence.

I would confront him and give him the opportunity to explain "what the heck is going on?????"

There have been times in my life that if a neighbor would have driven up and assumed the worse, explanations could have been difficult. Now days there are cell phones and I have all neighbor's numbers programmed in. Does this guy know how to contact you or your son-in-law. If so, I'd be more than a little ticked.

If dirty deeds are revealed, report it to the sheriff. That will be especially helpful if things go awry.

Sorry you are experiencing this.

In 1990 this whole area burned off. Fire depts were cutting fences left and right to get to the flames and to let animals get out of danger. Cows and horses were running the roads. People penned them to protect them. Of course, everyone in this area that new one another were thankful. There were those who didn't live on their places getting ticked off at folks for having their cows penned up, and they had been fed and watered, well cared for etc. I guess they expected us to rebuild their fences and drive their cattle home after we had fed them and watered them etc. We were trying to repair our own. I had lost three buildings and was fortunate because I didn't lose my home like others did. Some people were not even gracious that we had taken theie animals off of the roadways. Others were.

Anyway, there may be reasons for your given situation. Doesn't sound like it tho.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Put your own fences up six feet on your side. I don't share fence with anyone and I mean no one keeps problems down. Old slut cow can't back her butt up to the fence, and the bulls can't touch noses and blow snot on each other.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Put your own fences up six feet on your side. I don't share fence with anyone and I mean no one keeps problems down. Old slut cow can't back her butt up to the fence, and the bulls can't touch noses and blow snot on each other.

That is the ideal solution.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

I would lock the gates,put up no tresspassing signs and play dumb and let the guy come lookin for his cows and explain to you why they are in your pasture.

 

[Matt Schiel]

Hey Neighbor,

I would play dumb first and see what he says. I would have a hardened steel chain and good lock around the gate, with the no tespassing signs up. With a neighbor like that, you have pick a somewhat peaceful resolution. As he might be one,that would be hunting on his land, but every cow on your place is dead.

The best thing would be to get the signs up and if it happens again get the constables or sheriff to tell your neighbor not to let his cows get on your place. If you are a TSCRA member your area field inspectors involved if something starts to happen to your friends livestock. Our area inspector is Brent Mast of Willis. His number is 936-890-2633

Good luck,

Matt

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

Hey Neighbor,

I would play dumb first and see what he says. I would have a hardened steel chain and good lock around the gate, with the no tespassing signs up. With a neighbor like that, you have pick a somewhat peaceful resolution. As he might be one,that would be hunting on his land, but every cow on your place is dead.

The best thing would be to get the signs up and if it happens again get the constables or sheriff to tell your neighbor not to let his cows get on your place. If you are a TSCRA member your area field inspectors involved if something starts to happen to your friends livestock. Our area inspector is Brent Mast of Willis. His number is 936-890-2633

Good luck,

Matt

Might also get a good guard dog to stay on the place. 8) ;-) :cboy:

 

[backhoeboogie]

a hidden game cam could be priceless as well. Put tape over the flash so that no one finds it at night.

 

[LonghornRanch]

I am going to bet this is exactly what you think it is.

I am also sure he will try to talk his way out of this with some excuse.

You need to report this to the sheriffs office.

If the fences are fine and not damaged/repaired, he opened the gate to let his cows in.

You need to charge him a stud fee!

Bulls busting fences is common, but it should have been your Bull on his property. (With a broken/repaired fence.)

Does he have a Bull?

Sure hope his cows don't have V.D. I would call a Vet, and make him pay for it.

This post has me seeing RED!

If his cows are wild and dangerous...well you have to do what you have to do!

 

[TxSimbrahShower]

Did your friend that owns the bull turn him out? Maybe your friend interrupted something, you know Navasota runs on Saturday's. I would have called the MCSO and filed a report so in case anything comes up missing you have a record.

mom

 

[frenchie]

. Old slut cow can't back her butt up to the fence, and the bulls can't touch noses and blow snot on each other.

theres some pretty darn good advice ..

 

[brownmule]

check your state laws and codes under agriculture, got a crazy burnt out hippie chick neighbor trying to take my land. when i bout it she had a crazy stud colt on my field. he would run at you and try to strike you, even her, her family was afaird of him. did letters form lawyers for her remove her horse.. 30 days went to 30 more and so on..i had the right to protect my self on my own land, i told her by now means would i drop him if he came at me. i was getting ready to bring my mules down there and she have remove him, and when my large standard jack came down, he'd kick his a** . i explained that jacks will fight to the death. she finnialy got him off my land, wv code states that if some ones animal is on your land you can charge stable fees, damages , stud fees. vet bills. and so on. there is a stallion law also. you have to responsable for that animal. certain fence for studs. etc which she didnt have, i could impond him and sold him at stock market.. i now have my own mini law libariy.. but i have the paper to back me up. Rose

 

[jcummins]

To add a little to this:

There are times when any of us need help. Any given day, our cows could get on any of our neighbors property….that stuff happens. One of the first things we did after getting this property is to take the effort to meet and know our neighbors. My son-in-law some months back, found cows on the road. He suspected they were this problem neighbors cows, he stopped there, and they were. He jumped on a neighbors horse and helped get them back in. In fact…he pretty much did it all. And it did take a fair amount of effort. So we have tried to be helpful with this neighbor, with all our neighbors for that matter.

He has a bull, in fact when we first put this bull on our place, they tore up the fence between our places. The end result was our bull lick the snot out of the neighbors bull. We, together, fixed the fence, discussed the matter, but that was the end of that. We both knew that was part of this business.

We have exchanged cells phones numbers, All neighbors can contact us…in fact one did, earlier in the week and told us this neighbor was on our property…and felt he was up to something. We was already planning on going to the property this weekend because of this call.

I've thought of most said here…including the camera. Sizing this up, first hand, has to be done, and will impact decisions, but I'm thinking of calling the sheriff, tell him what we are seeing, document in effect what happen, but do nothing else. Simply act dumb, put his cows back, but lock that gate. Then if it happens again, we are in a situation to legally act….and I most certainly would. Something in my gut says it won't, but maybe with a locked gate…he would know, that we know and it would end there.

 

[LonghornRanch]

That is a good idea, document, document, document and take lots of pictures!

 

[Beef11]

I had a leased place that was about 40 acres of bottom ground that i kept a breeding group on. I went to check them one day and could see two bulls going the rounds hardcore. I thought this unusual because i only had one bull in there. I could see the white face on one of the bulls (both black) and knew it was my one neighbor who ran his bulls with his cows all year, never cut a bull calf, never helped calve or doctor and never introduced new blood. Heavily inbred, Dead cattle remains all over his place. Needless to say i wasn't happy about finding his bull in my pasture so i get over there and my black bull is kicking the heck out him only its not my black bull? I found him five minutes later hiding in the trees like punk he was. The black bull doing the fighting was my neighbors on the other side of the fence. That was the last year i ran that place. I have a buddy that ran down the street and also had a bull problem with these neighbors and he solved it with a pocket knife and a good rope. The steers stay home better and don't breed your cows.

 

[Bez!]

I had a leased place that was about 40 acres of bottom ground that i kept a breeding group on. I went to check them one day and could see two bulls going the rounds hardcore. I thought this unusual because i only had one bull in there. I could see the white face on one of the bulls (both black) and knew it was my one neighbor who ran his bulls with his cows all year, never cut a bull calf, never helped calve or doctor and never introduced new blood. Heavily inbred, Dead cattle remains all over his place. Needless to say i wasn't happy about finding his bull in my pasture so i get over there and my black bull is kicking the heck out him only its not my black bull? I found him five minutes later hiding in the trees like punk he was. The black bull doing the fighting was my neighbors on the other side of the fence. That was the last year i ran that place. I have a buddy that ran down the street and also had a bull problem with these neighbors and he solved it with a pocket knife and a good rope. The steers stay home better and don't breed your cows.

You got a real problem with a neighbours bull - and after all good intentions it does not stop - wait for it to come back -load it at night - drop it 50 miles away on government land and leave.

Neighbour comes looking - play dumb.

Funny how it stops the problem. It will never happen again - not even 15 years later.

Bez!

 

[aplusmnt]

I had a leased place that was about 40 acres of bottom ground that i kept a breeding group on. I went to check them one day and could see two bulls going the rounds hardcore. I thought this unusual because i only had one bull in there. I could see the white face on one of the bulls (both black) and knew it was my one neighbor who ran his bulls with his cows all year, never cut a bull calf, never helped calve or doctor and never introduced new blood. Heavily inbred, Dead cattle remains all over his place. Needless to say i wasn't happy about finding his bull in my pasture so i get over there and my black bull is kicking the heck out him only its not my black bull? I found him five minutes later hiding in the trees like punk he was. The black bull doing the fighting was my neighbors on the other side of the fence. That was the last year i ran that place. I have a buddy that ran down the street and also had a bull problem with these neighbors and he solved it with a pocket knife and a good rope. The steers stay home better and don't breed your cows.

You got a real problem with a neighbours bull - and after all good intentions it does not stop - wait for it to come back -load it at night - drop it 50 miles away on government land and leave.

Neighbour comes looking - play dumb.

Funny how it stops the problem. It will never happen again - not even 15 years later.

Bez!

That is a good one!

 

[Bez!]

I had a leased place that was about 40 acres of bottom ground that i kept a breeding group on. I went to check them one day and could see two bulls going the rounds hardcore. I thought this unusual because i only had one bull in there. I could see the white face on one of the bulls (both black) and knew it was my one neighbor who ran his bulls with his cows all year, never cut a bull calf, never helped calve or doctor and never introduced new blood. Heavily inbred, Dead cattle remains all over his place. Needless to say i wasn't happy about finding his bull in my pasture so i get over there and my black bull is kicking the heck out him only its not my black bull? I found him five minutes later hiding in the trees like punk he was. The black bull doing the fighting was my neighbors on the other side of the fence. That was the last year i ran that place. I have a buddy that ran down the street and also had a bull problem with these neighbors and he solved it with a pocket knife and a good rope. The steers stay home better and don't breed your cows.

You got a real problem with a neighbours bull - and after all good intentions it does not stop - wait for it to come back -load it at night - drop it 50 miles away on government land and leave.

Neighbour comes looking - play dumb.

Funny how it stops the problem. It will never happen again - not even 15 years later.

Bez!

That is a good one!

And it works.

Bez!