Pasture Lease Grazing Agreement: Fill & Download for Free

I have found while working in real estate for many years that anything can be worked out if all parties are up to the task. however, you may be talking about assuming a lease or transferring a lease or grazing agreement which requires all parties to agree. So if the purchase or sale depends on this agreement make sure it s signed and sealed and the terms are included as a contingency on the purchase contract.

My first thought is that your area is known for fires as well as mud slides, so trying to alter or replace the natural plant growth (which took hundreds of years to establish) can pose some additional hazards. Your agricultural extension agent should be included in any decision you make to alter the existing cover. I'd highly suggest you avoid anything that might be considered a noxious weed in your area - even though it might be a garden flower in other areas.Rather than fight nature, it seems appropriate to take advantage of what is there: a lot of grass and scrub-brush. Some answers mentioned sheep and goats which may be a good idea... but...Cattle have no front teeth so cannot scalp the plants down to soil level the way horses, sheep and goats will. This ensures that the turf root remains in the soil to hold it against the erosion of your rainy season and the wind. Cattle also have the inclination to graze everything down to the same level, simply because they are not very discriminating in what they will and will not eat. The result of allowing cattle to graze is: a pasture of uniform height- about the height your equipment would mow the grass to. They don't leave the grass growing tall in one place and grazed to the ground in another like horses do, nor kill the grass leaving bare earth to blow around, like sheep do. In addition, they happily push their way under bushes to get to every last available taller-than-two-inch blade of grass or leafy weed. In the process, they also rub and scratch themselves on the brush, which tends to break off all the weakest lower branches and might destroy small brush completely. In the case of small trees they leave the trunk and upper branches alone, but create a steer-sized space between the branches and the grass. That's a great help if fire happens to come through, as the short grass will not generally create flames tall enough to catch the twigs above on fire, reducing the disaster from forest fire to grass fire, which is a lot easier to put out. The cattle's cloven hooves are also easier on the soil and the roots of plants than horse's hooves. Cattle tend to be a little easier to fence as you can get away with just 4 or 5 strands of barbed wire. In our area USDA wants goats enclosed with 9 foot high woven wire or welded wire fences!You mentioned getting stock (sheep, goats) that you might not have experience in handling... I don't know anything about goats (other than their jumping ability and the fact that the billies urinate all over themselves) but I know enough about sheep to know that they carry Q fever - I would caution you not to try keeping them without first learning exactly how to do it. Also - get vaccinated.Ranchers raising grass-fed beef would have a sincere interest in accessing the kind of virgin grass you have, which clearly has not been treated with chemicals in many years. A rancher with cattle to feed might be willing to sign an agreement to take responsibility for the perimeter fencing to ensure his animals never get out and perhaps even help remove some of the junk and dilapidated buildings that prevent the grass from growing in some areas. I suspect the rancher would not need to have cattle on the property year-round, but would put them on it as the grass begins to grow and pull them off of it about the time the grass is ready to go dormant. As a result, even though the cattle were not on it all year, the grass would be short all year - all the way to the edges of the fencing, under the bushes, around the outbuildings and so on. You could tell the rancher how much grazing you want to permit. In my area (Colorado's high, dry plains) cattle sometimes graze the grass and weeds down to two inches over every square inch of many hundreds of acres. We don't have your fire issues, so everyone prefers to do less grazing than that, but you might want to let it get that thoroughly grazed- and keep it that way. Ranchers will pay a reasonable sum for pasture lease, but if you are going to be asking favors such as fence maintenance and brush or junk removal, you will need to reduce the cost of the lease; possibly to a trade of pasture-for-labor until the fences are in good repair and the land has been sufficiently cleared, and the labor well compensated. After that, you should be able to charge a reasonable rent.Once the existing tall grass varieties (timothy? fescue?) get grazed down effectively, you could also consider using a punch behind the tractor to add buffalo grass and blue grama grass seed to the existing cover in the areas the tractor can get to, or cast by hand in less accessible areas. Both are drought-hardy short grass species, but they are slow to start, need rain to get going, and won't overcome a really strong existing grass cover unless it is over-grazed. They do need sun. They have very deep root systems, spreading about 8 or 10 inches and penetrating about 2 feet, so they can manage through dry seasons and help prevent soil erosion in wet and windy times. Buffalo grass may need up to 5 or 6 years to get fully established, but it also has the ability to spread through stolons, while the blue grama is a bunchgrass; it takes hold a little faster but has very short stolons, so it will leave little open dirt spaces between the plants - perfect for the buffalo grass to fill in when it finally gets going. A strong existing stand of grama and buffalo grassees can - over time - push back a stand of existing taller grass species, if conditions are right. Both have short, curly basal leaves of 3 to 7 inches, so they would establish some areas of shorter grass cover than you may have currently. Since the seedheads can reach 10 to 20 inches, you might still want to graze those areas, at least part of the year. They are highly nutritious, zerascape, warm season grasses, and they are a large part of what covers our short-grass prairies here in the US. However, I don't know what your soil is like. Neither blue grama or buffalo grass will do well in sand - our high prairie soil is mostly alkaline clay.

Before there were used car salesmen, in fact before there were used cars, there were horse traders. Beware.For the amateur who wants a quiet horse, the tranquil animal you take home today may bust out like gangbusters tomorrow morning when the tranquilizer wears off.Or conversely: At a boarding stable one day a man brought in an open jumping horse and a rider to show him off. The horse sailed over 5–6 foot fences as if he had wings. After some haggling, the stable manager bought this superhorse for a bargain price. Next day the prize jumper came up dead lame. Manager had to admire the way he’d been duped. Of course he’d pull the same trick: shoot the horse’s leg full of Bute (phenylbutazone) so the animal would move normally to fool the next mark.So, first lesson: Don’t buy a horse without knowing who’s selling and what you’re buying.In fact don’t buy a horse.Correct me if I’m wrong but sounds as if you’re thinking to learn about horses by buying a horse. That’s putting the add-to-cart before the horse (sorry). Best thing is to learn about horses for at least a couple of years before you even think of owning one. Get as much experience as you can, it will never be enough. Volunteer at a horse rescue, livery or boarding stable. You’ll be put to work mucking stalls and there’s an art and science to that too.Another reason: Horses are not big dogs. They have not been bred as pets because they’ve traditionally had a job to do. Horses are not overly demonstrative and they don’t cuddle the way dogs, cats, even pigs and pythons do. Horses do signal their intentions pretty clearly but only if you’re experienced at reading their language: Understand Horse Body Language and You’ll Unlock the Equine Communication Code.Third reason: By nature horses are large, improbably strong animals that can lame you in a blink by kicking at a fly or stepping on your foot before you’ve learned how to move around them. Let a horse graze while you’re leading her, she may put a front hoof over the lead shank, then panic when she throws her head up and the shank yanks hard on both the halter and her leg, she hauls back fast, breaks loose and you realize horses don’t come back when called. And a loose horse is a nightmare for everyody involved.Learning to ride is NOT like learning to operate a bike, 4-wheeler or jet ski. For openers you’re twice as high off the ground with no brakes and no seatbelt. Machines only move when you tell them to, but a live animal can move unpredictably, especially when you haven’t yet learned to know what he’s going to do before he does. While riding they can send you flying just by shifting their weight out from under you.As for the danger, the real problem isn’t just that horse riding in all its forms is one of the top 3 most dangerous sports. The really sobering news is that injuries from horses tend to be severe and often life-changing: “Every year horse riding causes deaths and very serious injuries such as long term paralysis from spinal cord damage. Even if the danger is difficult to quantify, it is unarguable that horse riding is potentially dangerous. Moreover, anyone can be unlucky.” Note that last phrase: there are just too many ways for things to go wrong. http://www.medequestrian.co.uk/rider-safety/benefits-and-risks-of-riding/risks-of-injury-risk-management/Fourth reason: The sheer expense. Good grain and hay (learn to recognize them), pasture, shelter, grooming, shoeing, and oral care (floating the teeth) are just the basics. A good boarding stable is recommended for a new owner, and that’s not cheap. And vet bills: for openers that means a large-animals specialist making a house call. You’re not going to trailer the animal over to the vet every time he develops a cough from dusty hay, and if it’s colic you’ll be too busy trying to prevent him from lying down to trailor him anywhere. Which reminds me:Fifth reason (or whatever): Horses have delicate digestive systems. They don’t have extra stomachs like ruminants and they can’t regurgitate like we do. That can mean potentially fatal colic if somebody mows the field and leaves certain weeds to ferment when the horse is turned out. It will be up to you to recognize musty hay, or bales with too much clover or alfalfa when your animal isn’t used to it, and hay doesn’t come baled with handy labels from Chewy dot com. You’ll need to know when to give a bran mash, or when to cut back on the oats when he isn’t working. Oats are like Adderall to horses. “Feelin’ his oats” he can act like he’s full of the devil and fight you at every turn, when it just may be that he’s getting overgrained for the amount of exercise he’s getting. Cut back on the grain and you’ve got an entirely different mount. Oh and there’s the right tack: you don’t want to give your horse saddle sores or punish him with the wrong bit.Good source on all the aspects of HORSE CARE: https://www.horsemart.co.uk/health/horse-health-the-ultimate-guide/1816But if you really want to own a horse someday:Once you have some experience working around horses, grooming and feeding them, etc., there are a couple of options to explore.Sponsor or lease a horse at a livery stable. This is something we used to do years ago, it may be unusual nowadays but it won’t hurt to ask. The horse would available to you to groom and ride when she isn’t needed to hire out.Explore horse sharing. This is a lot like time-sharing a condo. You connect with someone who already has a horse and you help with the care and expenses. Since you are still learning, you may find it advisable to volunteer to take care of the horse 2–4 days a week without expecting to ride yet. You may be find an owner who might be willing to teach you to ride, and for that you’ll want to offer recompense, either in money or time/work. Keep the agreement temporary and time-limited until you both find out if it works, and then put it in writing to protect both of you. Any formal agreement should be vetted by an attorney experienced in share agreements of various types.And then one day . . . it may happen unplanned, you’re working/volunteering at a horse rescue or boarding stable, and one day one of the animals may need saving, or maybe just begins to look like the perfect horse. That can be nearly ideal because you know the horse and the folks at the facility can give you good advice. Better take two horses because they’re herd animals, and if your guy doesn’t have a buddy it can make him nervous and fretful. Or a goat may do, but not a burro, they can be noisy and ornery. Choose your horse’s friend wisely.One last possibility: If you have the facilities (meaning barn, paddock, field, outdoor shed for shelter and plenty of fresh water available) you could offer a home to an older horse who is ready to retire. Again, you’ll want expert advice before you commit, but there are plenty of horse owners who don’t want to send a well-loved animal to the knacker’s. In some cases these could be purebred and show animals past their show-ring prime but suitable for experienced amateurs. Ideally you may connect with an owner looking to retire her favorite riding horse, and you could end up with that equine equivalent of a golden retriever that you’re dreaming of.Yes, it could happen. As I say, to be fair to the horse and yourself, you’ll want to learn all you can of what you’re both in for.Thanks for the A2A.P.S. Not recommended:1. Horse auctions, unless you have an expert with you.2. Purebred animals: You could overpay for an animal that may be too high-strung and overall expensive for your needs. There are plenty of good grade horses out there with the temperament you describe.