Thinking about bringing either cows or goats back into our place and it has really grown up the last 4 years with nothing grazing. Can someone explain how it works? Does a rancher pay me or is it a free lease as long as they fix fencing? Any benefit to cows vs goats? Thinking of doing it January - August. This is in Coleman county.

A while back someone posted a chart of average lease price per acre by county. Yes they pay you, yes they need to keep the fences up. You also need to include language about access (no hunting unless you negotiate that separately), language about overgrazing, and language about anything else such as cutting hay.
Personally I would be very nervous about goats as I have seen what just a few can do, but that is just me.
ETA: that is a pretty short lease, you may have trouble finding someone to take that.

Lots of variables. Condition of current fencing, water, pens, number of acres just to name a few.

Depending on what you are wanting to clear goats can be a good choice, but they are going to eat different things from cattle for sure.

That country requires a lot of acres per animal unit, so I wouldn't expect much over $10-15/acre for unimproved land.

Will your current fence hold goats?

Is this enough acreage to be beneficial to the rancher or would it basically be doing you a favor?

Recently had a similar situation after acquiring some property that had lost its ag exemption.
The easiest thing to do in the moment was to open a gate into the neighboring place but that pasture has cattle and goats and we had a 1/4 mile run of perimeter fence that was just 5 strand barb wire.

We had to put net wire on that run of fence but now we can turn goats in there along with cattle and get back the ag valuation in a simple way.

We aren't charging anything for the grazing because the situation is already beneficial for both of us without money changing hands.

"Everything is negotiable" really applies here, so you're only limited by your own imagination, and that of your tenant. Given your comments, it would seem you're not interested in maximizing income, so ideally you have a neighbor with whom you can make a mutually attractive "trade" that benefits both. Assuming you're most interested in the deer/wildlife aspects, I'd avoid goats, as they compete directly with the deer for browse. Good luck….you're in an enviable position.

DeBoss said:

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Thinking about bringing either cows or goats back into our place and it has really grown up the last 4 years with nothing grazing. Can someone explain how it works? Does a rancher pay me or is it a free lease as long as they fix fencing? Any benefit to cows vs goats? Thinking of doing it January - August. This is in Coleman county.

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Rancher will pay you $20-25 a month per head to use your grazing land, if there is no grass then that all changes also depends what the quality of your grass is

How many acres do you have ? My brothers run 500 + or so head, they are always looking for more pasture land

DeBoss said:

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Thinking about bringing either cows or goats back into our place and it has really grown up the last 4 years with nothing grazing. Can someone explain how it works? Does a rancher pay me or is it a free lease as long as they fix fencing? Any benefit to cows vs goats? Thinking of doing it January - August. This is in Coleman county.

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You can make it anything you want to be as long as you and the other party agree. Doesn't have to be money if you don't want it to be.

Hell, you can set it up where the terms change - if your fences are bad, first year lease "payment" could be that the leasee repairs fences to your spec. Next year since the fences are good, could go to cash or you get a beef to have butchered, etc. Whatever works for you and them is fair game.

fullback44 said:

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DeBoss said:

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Thinking about bringing either cows or goats back into our place and it has really grown up the last 4 years with nothing grazing. Can someone explain how it works? Does a rancher pay me or is it a free lease as long as they fix fencing? Any benefit to cows vs goats? Thinking of doing it January - August. This is in Coleman county.

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Rancher will pay you $20-25 a month per head to use your grazing land, if there is no grass then that all changes also depends what the quality of your grass is

How many acres do you have ? My brothers run 500 + or so head, they are always looking for more pasture land

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I'm not sure what experience you have in the Coleman area, but that seems unrealistically high for a pure grass lease.

This is an old article, but your numbers still seem more than double what it reports.

Here is a more recent USDA NASS study. I believe Coleman county would fall into the Southern Low Plains.

I have no experience in that area- I just know what my brother pays in areas with good grass coastal areas and east Texas with more rain -
So I could easily be way off for that area - I guess I should stick to weekend ranching - lol

DeBoss said:

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Thinking about bringing either cows or goats back into our place and it has really grown up the last 4 years with nothing grazing. Can someone explain how it works? Does a rancher pay me or is it a free lease as long as they fix fencing? Any benefit to cows vs goats? Thinking of doing it January - August. This is in Coleman county.

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Depending on size of the place, would be very interested in leasing grass from you, if you don't already have someone lined up.

We're charging $10/acre in Callahan county which is just north of Coleman. This is a yearly lease. A good tenant is worth charging zero. A bad Tennant wouldn't be worth $30/acre. If you're not sure what you're getting, start with a yearly lease and then adjust.

We have 300 acres and it used to be run really hard before we got it. That's why we stopped running cattle because it was over grazed. But 4 years later lots of underbrush and natural grass has grown back. Only main concern I have is a 20 acre field planted in fall deer plot and a 25 acre field in wheat and sunflower. Everything else would be fair game. We have 3 tanks that always has water.

I'm definitely in this as more of land management vs revenue.

Figure out where they have leased before or have current leases. Talk to those landowners, look at those properties and look if they are feeding them in areas deliberately or of theyre hitting areas around water too hard

Put a cap on the total head that can be run, and make it conservative. One of the worst things than can happen is for leased property to get over-grazed. You'll spend more money repairing it than you ever got in rental income. Your local county extension agent should be able to help you with carrying capacity.

Talk to your local ag extension office. They should be able to give you good advice on how to structure the lease and probably know of some people who would want to lease it from you.

ALWAYS specify grazing height. Don't let someone overgraze just because they paid "rent".

DeBoss said:

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Thinking about bringing either cows or goats back into our place and it has really grown up the last 4 years with nothing grazing. Can someone explain how it works? Does a rancher pay me or is it a free lease as long as they fix fencing? Any benefit to cows vs goats? Thinking of doing it January - August. This is in Coleman county.

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What's overgrown? Mesquite bushes? Cows won't touch those. Goats will strip them to the bark. Grasses. Obviously different.

We're in Coleman county as well and I'd be nervous about goats - at least on our place, we'd just be farming fat coyotes. They're hell on fences as well.

EDIT - saw you have stocks tanks. That's a must obviously