Open Range...... whats the rules in your area?

[PLR]

Recently we have had some confusion regarding the rules of open range in my area. It usedto be(and has always been) if you live in an open range area you can turn your cows out, just keep an eye on them and do the neighborly thing and go get them if they get in with someonelses cows. But now the county says if it is privately owned land it must be fenced to run cows on it :?: This was discovered after over 100 phone calls to local, state and county governments... :shock: the only problem is... this "law" is not in writing..... There are no open range laws in this state.....or if they exhist they are written on a post-it note stuck on the inside of some filing cabinet somewhere. These laws mean nothing if they cant show them on paper....so whats up? Can I turn my cows out or not(right now they are eating what little grass is in my lake pasture and it aint gonna last long)

I was just wondering...if any of you had a similar situation in your areas?

Thanks

Shelby

 

[dun]

The only open range I'm aware of is/was government land not privately owned. And even with the open range we had to have a grazing alotment from the feds to use it.

dun

 

[Frankie]

Recently we have had some confusion regarding the rules of open range in my area. It usedto be(and has always been) if you live in an open range area you can turn your cows out, just keep an eye on them and do the neighborly thing and go get them if they get in with someonelses cows. But now the county says if it is privately owned land it must be fenced to run cows on it :?: This was discovered after over 100 phone calls to local, state and county governments... :shock: the only problem is... this "law" is not in writing..... There are no open range laws in this state.....or if they exhist they are written on a post-it note stuck on the inside of some filing cabinet somewhere. These laws mean nothing if they cant show them on paper....so whats up? Can I turn my cows out or not(right now they are eating what little grass is in my lake pasture and it aint gonna last long)

I was just wondering...if any of you had a similar situation in your areas?

Thanks

Shelby

How about some background, Shelby? Did someone complain that your cattle were grazing on privately owned land? If that's the case, I'd think it would be their responsibility to fence it to keep your cattle out. Talk to the sheriff and see what's what.

There is some "open range" not far from us. It's unfenced land actually owned by several small oil companies. It's thick with trees, ticks, pump jacks and storage tanks. Some people just turn their cattle out to graze in it but no one cares. The oil companies maintain the roads (sort of) and come in and out to take care of their wells, othewise it's just wide open. I will say, though, that I wasn't pleased when some of those free ranging cattle came through the fences onto my land next door. One lady ran a JerseyX??? bull with her cows and I definitely didn't want him breeding my cows!

But you need to talk to someone with authority and the sherriff would be my suggestion, unless you want to pay for an attorney.

 

[TUCO]

dang, cant hardly beleeve that any of them greedy oil companys would let anybody run cattle for free on there land. :lol: but i reckon it would cost em to much $$ to put up a fence. so maybe thats the real reason why they got to charge so much for gas and diesel :?:

 

[PaminIdaho]

Around here, it's the property owners responsibilty to fence the cows OUT to keep them off their property.

Pam
SW Idaho

 

[Dave]

I was of the understanding that if you own land in a range area in Washington State that you are responcable for fencing livestock off your property. I know for a fact it is that way in Oregon. They just went through several court battles on that issue. The other difference is that if a cow gets on a road in a range area and gets hit the driver is responcable for the accident. In a non-range area the cow owner is responcable.
As for actual "open range" that you can just turn your cows out on because you feel like it, I don't believe that exists any more. All the land is owned by someone. Government rangeland will have someone who has the grazing rights to it and private land is private land. Range laws do not give you the right to graze cattle where ever you want they just tell who is responcable for fencing.

Dave

 

[milesvb]

Here a rancher is responsible for controlling his own livestock and could be liable for damages if they get out. There are even minimum fencing standards in the statutes.

 

[PLR]

Well recently an incident happend that could affect me/my cattle.

For the last 20 years or so one of our neighbors has run cattle on the "Open Range" in my area(all privately owned by "white men" within the bounds of the Colville Tribal Reservation. Long ago he got a copy of the range laws governing the running of cattle. It said you had to live in the range where you wanted to turn cows out and have lived there for more than 3 years. It also said that if a landowner did not want the cattle on their property they had to fence them out.(which doesnt apply if you are running cows on state and federal lands, only on private lands) When we moved into the area (about 9 years ago) we aquired a copy of these same laws(our copy has been lost to time). So for the last three years we have been turning our cows out on april 1st and bringing them home on Nov 1st. My cows dont go very far(a mile or less) from our property because the only real watersource is a stocktank down by our barn that is kept full. I share the area with 2 other neighbors. all in all it is about one square mile of good grass shared by 30-40 cows. Then one of my neighbors bulls got out of our range and into a pasture leased by another rancher. He showed up at my house demanding that someone come get the bull or they would be buying calves.(the bull was a bradford in with his pure angus cows). I told him to contact the owner about the bull and gave them their phone number. This happend at about 7:30 pm. The next day he shows up with a Range Rider from the tribe to seize the bull on private property( here the tribe has no jurisdiction on privately owned land or Fee Property). The bull was taken and the owner served with a ticket(the ticket was their first clue that something was wrong, He never called). the terms regarding the return of his bull were these....He had to pay $210 in fines and either butcher the bull on site or take him to a secure location and butcher him within 24 hours with an inspection of the hide after the butchering. Now we dont know what sparked all this but the next day the range rider tried to recruite a friend of the bull's owner to help him confinscate more cows off of our range(namely My Cows and the other 2 ranchers cows). After makeing over 100 calls to every human in the goverment that might know the laws we discovered that no one knows what the laws are and they are not written down. So the other rancher contacted every law enforcement unit all the way up to the FBI. and Each said that the Tribes Range Rider had no authority to take the bull off private property. Now we are trying to resolve this issue and still find the range laws....

Shelby

 

[eric]

Shelby, do you actually own any land here? can you possibly move your cows to your placetill all blows over?

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

I can't imagine anyone wanting to run the legal liability, loss of cattle risk by pasturing them in any area that is not fenced in. Not to mention the difficulty or problems if the wrong bull gets in with one's cattle; or they get lost; or if you have a H### of a time rounding them up. Not to mention exposing one's cattle roaming "the open range" picking up all sorts of bugs, potential diseases from mingling with other wildlife or other persons stock that might be sick or diseased.

In my biased, insane opinion, if one can't afford to run their cattle in a fenced area (preferably yours or leased pasture) , then they can't afford to have cattle in the first place... I'm sure there are a few large ranchers who "lease" tens of thousands of acres from the Govt and once a year try to round up a few thousand cattle and calves for working them or hauling to sales who would take serious exception to my views.

So much for my 2 cents worth!

 

[Dave]

Shelby,

If this is part of the Colville Reservation and governed by them it opens a whole different can of worms. Tribes are considered a seperate nation and write (or rewrite) their own rules. Things can stay the same for ever or change over night depending on the whim of the tribe. I would talk to the tribal counsel to see what their position is on this.

Dave