Making land pay?

[fishboy1]

For those of us who dream of buying some acreage to hunt, what are some ways of making the land "pay" for itself or ways to offset the costs of owning/managing land?

Lets start a list.

1. Timber sales
2.

 

[richmanbarbeque]

When you find out let me know.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Timber is the big thing here of course.

Ill add, (site specific of course)

#2- Flagstone and Field Stone. I have alot of money laying around in rock(enough that I could pay for my property 2 times over) but I just will not have it harvested because of the damage they do to water quality and young timber when they harvest it.

 

[Radar]

My dad used to lease out his fields for farming crops . He owned about 50 acres of agricultural fields in Mi.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Good one Radar. Seems like my grandmother gets around 1000 a year for her 35 acre field to be planted in beans or corn.

Ill add hay fields. Some guys will pay decent to lease those too.

 

[ShaneHallum]

We used to own over 1000 acres of farm land. Something we used to do, that people don't think much about is to let UT knoxville come in and teach their students how to do tests on the land, soil conservations. things of that nature.

 

[megalomaniac]

CRP, WRP, Nature conservations, GRP (although it's difficult to qualify and underfunded).

Run it as a farm... tons of writeoffs for your regular income taxes.

Run it as a business... although it may be difficult to generate enough income to offset the debt.

 

[Chaneylake]

For those of us who dream of buying some acreage to hunt, what are some ways of making the land "pay" for itself or ways to offset the costs of owning/managing land?

Lets start a list.

1. Timber sales
2.

timber sales will be once every 25-40 years depending upon the quality of the soil and timber management

 

[BSK]

For those of us who dream of buying some acreage to hunt, what are some ways of making the land "pay" for itself or ways to offset the costs of owning/managing land?

Lets start a list.

1. Timber sales
2.

timber sales will be once every 25-40 years depending upon the quality of the soil and timber management

Not of your cutting timber right for wildlife management purposes. My plans call for timber cutting every three to six years. Just not all of it.

 

[Huntnbubba]

I've heard of people renting their place out a few weekends a year to groups for fourwheeling, dirtbike riding, or riding horses.

 

[richmanbarbeque]

Fishboy, How many acres are we talking about. Different ideas apply for different amounts of land.

 

[Football Hunter]

"and then one day he was shooting at some foOd,and up through the ground came a bubblin crude,oil that is"

 

[Anonymous]

unreasonable to expect the land to pay for itself. however, you should hope to get a reasonable rate of return on your investment, at least 5%. with good mangagement, that is not hard to do.

 

[pass-thru]

We had our pond dredged a few years ago. Took out 110 loads of good soil. We sold it to a landscaper for over $2000. Of course it cost 12k to have the work done.

 

[ShaneHallum]

Put ya a mud bog on it. charge 5 bucks a head. and do it every other weekend during the summer. Make ya a killin'

 

[ShaneHallum]

"and then one day he was shooting at some foOd,and up through the ground came a bubblin crude,oil that is"

Man we can only wish!!! that's funny

 

[fishboy1]

Fishboy, How many acres are we talking about. Different ideas apply for different amounts of land.

1-1000 ac. Just looking for any ideas at all. Some will fit, some won't but somebody might pick up an idea they hadn't thought of before.

IF we can find a chunk that is affordable and has some pasture, we may raise some beef or those fancy $$$ goats to offset some of the costs.

 

[Chaneylake]

For those of us who dream of buying some acreage to hunt, what are some ways of making the land "pay" for itself or ways to offset the costs of owning/managing land?

Lets start a list.

1. Timber sales
2.

timber sales will be once every 25-40 years depending upon the quality of the soil and timber management

Not of your cutting timber right for wildlife management purposes. My plans call for timber cutting every three to six years. Just not all of it.

I was refering to harvesting trees in large quantities, in my/our area no one will move equipment to the site for small acreage amounts, it just to costly for the modern day equipment, for example: at Chaney[2662 ac], the property is basically in 10 different levels of growth, the last time timber was harvested was 2007, there should be another 300 ac +/- ready in the next 2-3 years, the 250 acres that was cut in 2007[20 inch and larger] will not be ready again for about 25 years or so

 

[Chaneylake]

I've heard of people renting their place out a few weekends a year to groups for fourwheeling, dirtbike riding, or riding horses.

if you do that, one might need to looking into a LLC and extra insurance coverage incase someone has an accident

 

[Radar]

I've heard of people renting their place out a few weekends a year to groups for fourwheeling, dirtbike riding, or riding horses.

if you do that, one might need to looking into a LLC and extra insurance coverage incase someone has an accident

That would be something I would never do as a landowner and hunter . Why increase human intrusion during the offseason , not to mention the liability issues that chaneylake mentioned .

 

[Jarred525]

When I was in college, I used to haul out pallets of rocks to sell to folks who put fish/koi ponds in. Would do it in the wintertime to avoid the snakes. Would get about $125/pallet. Costs were of course back pain, diesel, tractor maintenance, and net wire to put around the pallets. Actually got the pallets for free. Was a good little side job that gave me some spending money for college.

 

[buckdead]

if ya got enough pasture i think cattle would be the way to go. you will not get rich but it would be fairly easy.

 

[Chris Tripp]

Conservation easements. The goverment will give you depreciation checks on it for several years for taking it's potential of being developed away.

 

[NBF7240]

oil and gas lease pay very good
I got 20 bucks per acre and the companies will rent it for 5 years and pay all the rent up front. Also they paid a dollar per foot for easement. All this up front before drilling. If they drill and hit enough gas..........who knows!

 

[deerchaser007]

I have heard cell phone towers pay off pretty good!!

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I have heard the same thing deerchaser

 

[BSK]

Conservation easements. The goverment will give you depreciation checks on it for several years for taking it's potential of being developed away.

Just know that these can be a legal nightmare to set up. I've done so several times and they took hundreds of hours of research and documentation.

 

[LIL JOKER]

ive heard the towers will pay around 700-1000 month..now thats hear say but ive heard that..

 

[Radar]

Plant some weed .

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Plant some weed .

You would be amazed just how many people that own good sized farms around here do that or did that at one time. When I first bought my property, I found more $$$$ in weed than what the property appraised for, no joke.