Water rights can make, or break, an agricultural real estate transaction. Irrigation rights alone were appraised at over $24 million in a deal this article’s author helped to close.

Whether you are a hauler, a buyer, a seller, an intermediate livestock auction, order buyer, dealer, packer and so on, there may be some legal considerations for you to take into consideration for your role in the process of hauling cattle.

As 2023 draws to a close, there is no shortage of agricultural law news to reflect on over the past 365 days. Looking forward to 2024, many of these issues will remain critical issues for many agricultural producers around the country.

Between high production costs, drought and other unpredictable market factors, there are many challenges facing those in the cattle industry. But one challenge no cattle producer wants to experience is when a buyer of cattle defaults on payment.

When someone hears “estate plan” they generally think “will.” However, for today, I want to focus on the other estate documents beyond a will – there are many!

Agricultural leases are an important tool heavily relied on by many farmers and ranchers across the U.S. agricultural industry. Although the parties are free to negotiate a wide variety of terms, agriculture leases should, at minimum, contain the “Four P's”: the parties, property, period and payment.

Cattle grazing may be a good use of cattle grazing land, but it may not be the only good use. Particularly as nationwide climate goals have driven investment throughout the country in clean electric and carbon offset technologies, cattle graziers may find new market opportunities to make mixed use of cattle grazing land.

Most of the time, people say they don’t need anything in writing because it is just a simple deal and done. And maybe that is true. But what if it’s not?