How can you have a total of 150 acres, and call it a cattle ranch?
I plan on winning the lotto, and while gathering information on how much land I would need to own to buffer myself from neighbors and feds, I found out that most farmers couldn't turn a profit on less than 300 acres.
Ranchers need thousands of acres, not mere several hundreds.
I sort of understand leased acreage unimproved property rights.
But whether the owner(s) of the leased property are government or private citizens,the lease terms will always change when the previous contract is up for renewal, and before a new legal lease begins.
I don't need to be a cattle ranch expert to know that 150 acres is not large enough to qualify as more than a subsistence level cattle ranch.
Am I missing something?
From reading the article it looks like his ranch is 150 acres but the land is 6,000 acres that the cattle graze on.
In the west, it is fairly common for a rancher to have a few hundred acres. They rent pasture from private owners or buy grazing ‘rights’ from the government. Those grazing rights can cost hundreds of thousands, and the government reserves the right to reduce or end them without warning.
Nevada is around 85-90% owned by the government. Thus most ranchers there have to deal with the feds for grazing.
A friend of mine has a couple thousand sheep and several hundred head of cattle. He juggles grazing times and amounts all the time. He leases land in 3 states and uses grazing on BLM land as well. He grows hay on his land to feed his animals for brief periods between his rentals.