Range Wars

[back2dfuture]

I have not posted in here in a while.... But I wanted to get some honest opinions about this: I took over my family's land.. roughly 100 acres split between 4 pastures..& I won a land bid on another 42acres owned by the water company. I was bidding against a distant relative., The lease land had been in my family for about 50yrs, via my grand pa, then my uncle ran cattle on it. When my uncle decided to sell out he gave the lease to this distant relative, this relative was also leasing abt 17 acres of the family land, which is some what connected to the lease land. Now this all stop when I decided to use the land .Our land's south fence sits on the bank of Lake Mexia along with the lease land.. During the summer when the stock tank/grasses dry up, you let the cows out to go water in the lake & travel along the banks of the lake to the lease land, which has a half acre stock tank that has NEVER gone dry in the 50 yrs since it was dug .In order to have access to the lake you have lease the water companies acres.. I won the bid 2 Fridays ago, & on Wed of last week my cattle got out into another relatives pastures.. Now I live about an hour away in Dallas, so I could not get down there till Sat... I don't have fence jumpers or aggressive cattle. So I was thinking maybe another uncle that still lives down there may have left the gate open when he went to check his trot lines.....Of course when I get down there, GUESS WHAT I FOUND NOT A OPEN GATE, BUT MY FENCE WAS CUT & MY T POST HAD BEEN STOLEN.. & the cattle of the distant relative in my pasture. Now this distant relative would bump heads with my uncle that ran cattle all the time & he has "salty" reputation in the community.. Now my dilemma is I'm 35 & he is abt 75 at least, Even though I'm from the city, my parents raised me with good ole country values.. yes 'ma'm yes sir , Ms & Mr etc etc..I'm kinda unsure what "tone" to take with my elder..Besides it really hurt my feelings..In the black community agri business is almost none existence. Here I am trying to make some extra money to take of my family & a elder is doing this to me, instead of giving me advice. I was not even worried about his cattle using one of my pastures because I only have a few head, but NOW, I'm like "BLEEP" that, my 5 cattle have free roam of 100 & something acres.. Thoughts.

 

[greybeard]

Time to stand your ground as I see it. Friends are friends--family is family, but business is business and it needs to be kept within the confines of business.

 

[cross_7]

Depends on whether you want to have a good relationship with him
If you did and it were me(I am sure I'm wrong) I just go ask him if he knew what happened to the fence and if he knew his cattle were grazing your property
If you wanted to help an old man out and be freinds I'd offer to let him graze his cattle at an agreed price since you only have 5 cows and can spare the grass
The alternative would to call the sheriff and have them tell him to remove his cattle

 

[Tim/South]

Did he install the fence some years ago? Just wondering if he felt the fence and T posts were his?

I would ask him if he could help me keep an eye on my cows, maybe offer to pay him since you do not live close. Tell him you have had some trouble and need help from the kinfolk. Also tell him you have hidden game cameras around the place on the advice of the sherifs office.

Good luck.