[nellyt]

A local farmer has been grazing his stock on our now owned section for a quite a while while it was up for sale.

We now need to approach him and discuss an "arrangement" for letting him eat our lovely grass.

Does anyone have any idea what a typical rate would be for sheep.?

I have trawled the web and can find no figures.

Thanks

[nippa&pippa]

Going rate for sheep is 50 to 60 cents per head :nice1

BTW where about you live? PM if private info

[willsken]

We allow sheep to graze on ours for free. 1 it keeps the grass down and 2 it's amazing how much the gesture is repaid! :D

[k-k]

We have the neighbours cows in our paddocks for free,it works in his favour as he can keep more. As Willsken says, it keeps the grass down and there are benefits for us as well. (a plentiful supply of meat when one of them goes off the the works).

I don't think there is much money to be made letting out grazing land so maybe you should try for something other than money, like suggesting you'll take some meat or a few bottles of wine. You might get a better deal that way.

[Moorf]

We also have had stock being grazed on our land and we've always done it for free as it keeps the grass down... we also find we trade help or products with those people for the use of the land - they have often helped us mend fences and given advice on land clearance etc.

Unless it was a huge commercial herd I'd offer grazing for free.

Just remember that stock can be very destructive to fences so make sure you take note of the state of your fences and ask for them to repair any damage their stock makes (especially cattle) - otherwise you'll end up out of pocket as fencing doesn't come cheap.

[nellyt]

Agreed with the getting any "fee" paid in kind, such as repairing the fence etc.
Do though want to get an approximate idea of value.

We've had about 150 sheep for a week. If thats $75 and it takes the farmer 5 minutes to repair the fence then he still owes us a favour or two.

Maybe not neighbourly spirit but the farmer in question doesn't seem to have much of a good work spoken for him by all the other neighbours.
Quite happy to be more neighbourly to a proper neighbour!

[Moorf]

Maybe not neighbourly spirit but the farmer in question doesn't seem to have much of a good work spoken for him by all the other neighbours.
Quite happy to be more neighbourly to a proper neighbour!

Very wise and another good point - there are people round here that I'd never let use our land, although they're neighbours they don't have a great reputation. To be honest I wouldn't even let them if they did pay, regardless, as they can make your life awkward and not worth the $$.

[nellyt]

It took us ages to find the farmer in question here. They grazed the land bare and were starving, so much so people were phoning up the police.
Never actually tracked him down, only someone who said it was his "mate". Anyway they disappeared, and despite asking he only removed one of the dead ones, the other he threw over the fence into the woods!

Anyway that was last year, and the grass now needs a cut. Our neighbour (ex farmer) has passed our details onto a friend who just phoned to see if he could put his ewes on the land for a bit.
We're quite happy to do this for the convenience of cutting the grass and repairing any fences.
He did though offer to come to an "agreement" and said he would look up what the rate for grazing was.

Any idea where he is going to look this up?

[nippa&pippa]

For last few months we had over 200 sheeps in one of our paddocks, grazing for nothing, just promise to looking after our fencing & tidy it up which he did kept his promise.

[benandclare]

Check this out , might help you come to a mutually agreeable arrangement :nice1

http://www.lifestyleblock.co.nz/vforum/showthread.php?t=14783&highlight=grazing+prices
http://www.lifestyleblock.co.nz/vforum/showthread.php?t=12017&highlight=grazing+prices


Have also sent e-mail to farming friend from Banks Pennisula to see what going rate is.