Bought a farm, now what?

[cmaxwell]

My wife and I just bought a 71 acre farm with an existing cattle lease. To say I don't know what I'm doing would be an understatement. :laughing:

I started looking at this forum for suggestions on which tractor to purchase but I have a question the lease first. The farm is REALLY overgrown. Too overgrown to bush hog the vast majority of acreage. I will probably need to purchase or hire a forestry mulcher to start. After the fields are cleared the question will be who takes care of bush hogging the land, me or the cattle farmer? Is it customary for the cattle farmer leasing the land to plant and bush hog? Any suggestions on the going rate for leasing land for cattle?

Thanks for the help.

 

[M5farms]

every area is different as far as lease prices and agreements. First I would look at the lease and see what it spell out. Around here if I lease a property Im in full control and responsible for keeping it maintained. Most landowners want it to look pleasing and not be over grazed or completely stripped. Here the going rate for fenced property with water available is around 30 to 55 and acre. The non tillable land is on the low end but if its tillable you have to pay the 55 to keep it out of a row croppers hand.

 

[smstonypoint]

Annual average rental rates by county are reported at USDA/NASS QuickStats Ad-hoc Query Tool. Select survey, economics, expenses, rent, expense, etc.

Steve

 

[ericm979]

What's the lease say?

Forestry mulchers are REALLY expensive. The cheapest new PTO unit I have found was $12k and it's not got much capacity. "real" PTO mulchers cost about 3-4x that. If you want to run one off a PTO you'll need a lot of HP... probably much more than you'd need for any other task. That'd put you into a larger more expensive tractor than you need.

A PTO mulcher means you're operating in reverse. I do a lot of that when mowing with the rotary cutter as i'm working around trees and brush I've not yet cleared. I'm fit and my neck works but after a couple hours it gets old. A PTO mulcher would mean working in reverse all the time. Ugh. And you're limted to where you can operate a tractor. Slopes and wet areas may be off limits.

A track loader mulcher works in forwards and can go places a tractor can't. They make dedicated track loaders for mulching with shielded windows and air filtration. Those are $100k++ new. About half to 2/3 that used. I've been fantasy shopping buying a used one, getting the 10 acres of our land that's covered in brush cleared in a couple months and selling it. It's really thick brush and it's slow going with chainsaw and chipper. I'm working on the ugliest part right now and it's got me a frustrated at the slow pace, which is mostly due to the poison oak.

It's possible that in your area you can rent one or hire it done at a reasonable rate, unlike here.

 

[cmaxwell]

I've gotten estimates from guys that own forestry mulchers to clear our land. They want approximately $40k to do the job. I'm leaning towards just purchasing a track loader mulcher and doing it myself and then selling the unit afterwards. As if that wasn't a big enough decision, then I have to determine who bush hogs the land after it's cleared. If it's me, then that means a much bigger tractor than I had planned.

While approximately 65 of the 71 acres is currently leased, there is no written agreement. It was just a handshake and an exchange of $500. For the cattle farmer's protection and mine, I plan on executing a lease. My thinking is continue the lease at $500, I will clear the land but he has to take responsibility for bush hogging it. Does that sound reasonable?

 

[Gary Fowler]

How big are the trees that you plan to mulch? A 50 HP or larger tractor with a heavy duty bush hog will make clean work of trees up to 4" in diameter. Our farm was grown up in weeds and saplings when we bought it, some of them 8" or so in diameter at the base. Many of them I was able to uproot using my FEL then haul them to a burn pile. The smaller stuff that my FEL could just ride over, was eat up by the bush hog. When the tree is bent over, easing into with a bush hog will cut it easily and once on the ground, the limbs can be sheared off with a bush hog.

Larger stuff you could just mow around and come back with a chainsaw to cut them flush with the ground OR just leave a few of the larger ones for shade for the cattle. As long as you don't have a thicket of trees, the occasional stray tree will not shade out the grass. You may need to trim the limbs up high so you can traverse under it with your tractor easily when mowing in the future.

 

[jeff9366]

Is it worth $500 to have someone else's cattle on your property, with the smell?

$5,000 maybe, but $500?

Lease may qualify you as a business, so you can depreciate equipment purchases.

 

[cmaxwell]

Good question regarding whether or not it's worth the hassle for $500. If the cattle farmer is only willing to give $500 and then I am the one having to maintain the land, then it's good-bye cows.

The pasture area has dozens of very large osage orange trees (bois d'arcs) that are 8"+ diameter. There is also several thousand feet of old fence line that is full of large hack berry trees. I've researched PTO mulchers and large bush hogs but the property is too overgrown for those.

 

[Oldoak]

Forestry mulchers for hire are expensive but if their estimates are around 40k, there must be quite a bit to deal will on you newly purchased farm. I think you would be overwhelmed to try and tackle it with anything less.

If the cattleman is leasing it now for $500, it should be worth a lot more once the overgrown land is cleared or at the least it should then be his obligation written in the new lease for him to maintain the property and not let the brush grow back beyond "x" amount of inches high. Depending on the size of his heard, the cattle will help keep some of it from growing back. Of course they will also fertilize it too.

There are many unknown particulars. The best any of us can really do is give you ideas and options to think about. Then you decide what is best for YOU.

 

[Liquidsilver]

I'm NOT an expert, but I had a 30 acre area with stuff that was far too big to bush hog... and I had a guy with a high lift (Cat 655 I think) grade it and then paid another guy to seed it. It cost about $6000, but now it's the best looking grass area I have on the property.

Now I can easily mow it with a rotary cutter with the rest of the property. Just a thought.