The Most Valuable Crop?

We are in the process of dealing with the pipeline too. Do not use trees as your "crop", they only give you timber value, which I would guess is zero on new seedlings. I bet the pipeline people just love Texican!

You bet they do. Some people are just irrational!

You can bet that those pipe line boys have encountered every kind of "my land is worth.........." line.
They would be sharks . . . .
They all know that the <company> WILL WIN in the long run.
Not nice thoughts I know, but welcome to the real world of pipeline right a ways.

I had Ga power go across my land. They payed what the cort said & thats it. take it or not-your choice. it shure ain't much. they have an easment & can trespass on the power line to trim, inspect, orwhatever they want whenever they want-- it sucks..I had wheat & oats growin 3 years ago . the drove in with trccks & did a good job flattening it. left trash & crapped behind a few trees-I did not like that...it was in feb. they brought mr 1 sack of feed wheat??? why I do not know. it will grow but to late in feb. to plant for a spring harvest . I still pay yearly taxes on the land but I am afraid to plant any GOOD seeds there they might ruin the crop & just laugh it off.
so just take what you can when you can. that public sevice commision wins every-every time.

If you have timber, you get your 'rod price', plus price of the timber, and if you're smart, you get the timber stacked up for you also... and you can have a logger come in and sell the timber to him, or take it to the bandsaw miller and get lumber made.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

What company is going across your land? I think that makes a difference, I have hear that some companies are really good about make sure you get paid a fair price and they will make sure you land is nicer then when they started. Also, don't count on them coming through for sure. Make sure if you plant something, it will be something that you can use / harvest. Just in case they don't come through.

Irrational? Moi?

I deal with these people professionally in my business and in my personal life. If the landman and company doing the work know that you aren't a rube, they treat you differently. Be ignorant, and they will abuse you. Know the game, have a copy of your deeds, existing row agreements in hand, and you're in control... Call their bluff... Know where the 'lines' are... if they trespass, be there with a camera and a witness, document it. If they've damaged something, demand damages, while they're on premises... get the field man to get on the phone, right then, contact his or her boss, and insist on damages to be paid, immediately... Or, you'll not allow them off the property. Call the sheriff, if need be.

I've held everything from backhoes to multimillion dollar drilling rigs at bay... I had the 'papers' on my side, and once they got their paperwork straight, they realized my papers trumped theirs, and they paid... Last instance... I got 20K worth of gravel on my road, and 17K in cash, for a one week easement.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

They want a temp 300' working right of way and 150 feet of perment ROW so its a pretty substantel piece.
LOL it just happens to be right down the the area I usually put my runway in so there is a historical president for different crops in that area.
The northern 660 ' crosses a area where a pipeline ALREADY is and where walnuttrees have been planeted for over 20 years so It would seem I can plant trees on the ROW. The downside is they are only offering $3000 an acre tree damage right now. that seems a bit low to me since I may live to harvest 20 year old trees but doubt I will see the harvest if I have to plant new ones.
What Ive been told by them is they will pay historical yeilds times current prices if they destroy crops ,in the past they have been fairly generues in that area.

fantasymaker, in today's economy 20 year old natural regeneration trees regardless of the species will not bring more than $3000 per acre (maybe $3500) on a clear cut. You could argue that you were going to harvest the trees when they were to be cut and you should have both the loggers share and the landowners share.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

How wide? 30, 45, 60'? They usually get a temp easement on 40 or 45, and a permanenton 30'. The last row they wanted across me was going to be 4500' long, and they only half way offered 6$/linear foot... I asked for 9.

I don't think they have problems with tree crops, as long as the base of the tree is out of the right of way... so you 'could' have a walnut orchard, with the trunks growing right off of the row, and the limbs covering the row. The limbs of my pine trees intermingle, over one section of row, and they have no problem with it.

If your walnut trees are young and not producing, you might have to get some baseline production data from someone else. An uncle sought in the mid 5 figures for one ancient pecan tree, when an oil company wanted to drill a well on that spot. He was lucky, as the tree was producing pecans at the time... he got the landman out and raked up a square yard of ground, bagged it, handed it to him and said this was an average yield... told the landman to get out his tape and measure the 'drop shed' and multiply by the bag weight and then multiply that by 4$/lb... what they get for shelled pecans... Turns out the tree makes over 500 lbs each year. They wanted to pay 500 for the tree, he wanted 50,000, as that one tree would keep producing for another fifty or hundred years.... at a couple thousand a year in nut crops... (of course, he simply didn't want a well in hay meadow, and didn't want to lose the tree... all the money in the world wouldn't have made him happy). Told em if they wanted to dig it up and move it out of the way, and guarantee that it lived, he'd go along with it (knowing it was impossible)... They moved the well.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

DH sez: "The most valuable crop is the one you have growing out in your field."

If it were to be legalized the price would drop from thousands per pound to a couple dollars a pound, similar to tobacco which would take the big profits out of the game. hence, its not going to be legal anytime soon.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Wow, texican.......our ROW guy thought I was a PITA. I should show him this thread! LOL