I'm trying to make sense of your story. You've got a quarter section, which is a mile in circumference. You maintain 2000 feet of it, which is less than half.
I'm not familiar with Arizonas fencing laws, but I'm sure they fairly similar to Colorados, since they were both western states when the fence laws were written. Colorado is an open range state, there are different facets of the fencing law, and how strays are dealt with. But most laws were created during the homesteading era. IE...if your a small landowner, you must fence out your place. There have been add-ons to these laws of which I'm not totally familiar with.
But a mile of fence....C'mon! That's such a small thing to build or maintain. Cattle aren't that hard to keep where they belong with a good and proper fence. I don't care what people say! Bulls might get to lusting at a bunch of girls on the other side, but even they (99%) can be taught that it's not a good place to be.
Don't know what your pictures were supposed to represent? Not typical range conditions for sure. Very little explanation of them that didn't create more questions?
net;6644388]I live in a tiny community with about seven full time residents, around 24 homes (including vacation homes), and about 160 acres of land total between all the owners. It's entirely surrounded by national forest. The community is a real eclectic mix of vacation homes, a small farm with horses, a small vineyard, etc. We (my father, stepmother, and I) have goats, a garden, and pretty much a little piece of paradise here.
To make a long story short, the community is responsible for maintaining about 2,000 feet of range fence to keep the range cattle out, and the rest of the fence is the rancher's LEGAL responsibility.
(A brief explanation for those who want it -- the community is on the border between two sections. The rancher needs to maintain the actual border between sections, or "pastures" as they're called locally. We maintain the fence between the privately owned land and the range pasture on the west side.)
All told, it's about a mile of fence over some very rough terrain. My father and several other owners got the forest service permits, paid for the materials, and put up the community's part of the fence about six years ago. This involved driving t-posts into limestone in some pretty rugged country ... They've maintained it really well since. As far as we know, we've had no cattle get through "our" fence -- we've kept it tight, we walk it regularly, cut down fallen trees, fix wash-outs, etc.
The rancher ... not so much. It's been an ongoing problem, for years. It takes them days to get them to respond when their fence is down, and to come get their cattle out of the community. (Fixing the rancher's fence if it were just one spot wouldn't be a huge issue but rounding up range cattle without horses or dogs is. And his entire fence line needs to be reworked, so it's not just one spot. It's sagging, trees over it, washed out, etc..)
My father's complained to the forest service regarding the poorly maintained fence, and the rancher's foreman tells the forest service that "we" left a gate open or didn't maintain "our" fence and that's why cows got through. Untrue, but the forest service seems to side with the rancher most of the time. It's a local-politics thing. You kinda have to deal with politics in an area like this to understand ... there's the truth, and then there's the good ol' boy network, and the two are sometimes incompatible.
Today was the final straw, as far as I'm concerned -- the rancher's foreman told my father that he couldn't find some cattle that were in the community. They were in plain sight -- he didn't actually drive in to look for them, he just SAID he looked for them. So my father raised heck with him, and got the foreman to come back, and showed the foreman where the cows were ... in plain sight lying down in somebody's front yard.
My father also told the foreman that he would call the livestock commission and report the cattle as strays if they didn't start responding IMMEDIATELY rather than a few days later when cows got loose. By state law, they ARE considered strays as soon as they leave their range pasture.
The foreman's response? If my father did that, he would cut the fence and drive ALL the cattle into the community.
Two hours later, I go to get the mail, which is a mile away. The foreman's truck and horse trailer was down at the rancher's sorting pens so I knew he was still in the area. The sorting pens are right across the road from our mailboxes. I decided to drive around the community to see if the foreman was still chasing cows through our back yards (he wasn't) and to make sure the gates were closed if he was gone.
I find a big Angus bull is hanging out on our neighbor's lawn in plain sight, chewing his cud. No sign of the foreman. My father calls the foreman, and he hangs up on my dad. My father calls the rancher, has a chat with him, and the rancher says he'll call the foreman and tell him to go get the bull.
Figuring the foreman might be nicer to me, since I'm female, I volunteered to drive down to the sorting pen to make sure the foreman got the bull before he left. He's been a real jerk to any man from our community who's talked to him. (I think it's a local culture thing -- the good ol' boys around here tend to be jerks to other men, but if a woman asks them nicely, they'll take care of it.)
As I pulled up on my quad to the sorting pen, the foreman was loading his horse and dogs up to leave. The conversation went something like this:
"Hey! I'm Cygnet, I live up here. I know you're looking for a bull. Did your boss get ahold of you?"
"Ayup."
"Did you get the bull out?"
"Couldn't find 'im." (Note that it's a mile from my house to the sorting pens, so in the time it took me to drive an ATV a mile on dirt roads, he spoke to his boss, searched for the bull, couldn't find the bull, and got back to the sorting pen. His little horse sure can move!)
"Oh! Well, I can make life easy on you. He's in S.B's front yard."
"I don't know where S.B.'s front yard is."
"Well, follow me, I'll show you."
So I showed the foreman where the bull was. He assures me the bull is a big pet, wouldn't hurt anyone, then he throws a loop over the bull's head, and leads him off towards the gate. The bull is apparently halter broke and easy to handle. So it wasn't like he was avoiding a rodeo with some man-killing monster of a wild range bull. Seriously? How hard would it have been to just go get the dang bull rather than make a huge production out of it! Yeah, he probably had to ride a mile on horseback in 90 degree weather to get the bull where he was supposed to be, but tough noogies, it's his JOB.
(And I don't care how nice the bull is, I don't trust bulls. Though after watching the foreman handle him, I may just see if I can lead him where he belongs the next time he shows up. He's halter broke, and I don't want the neighborhood kids who come up almost every weekend getting clobbered. Alternately, rather than leading him back to his range, I might just be evil and put him in a pen and call the authorities to come get him as a stray. Probably depends on what kind of a mood I'm in that day ...)
Annnyway ... sorry for the long story. Guess this was a bit of a vent.
The rancher is in the wrong -- they're not maintaining fences. It is an ongoing issue that they clearly don't take seriously. There are KIDS in the community. I don't care how easy the bull is to handle, he's a bull.
I suspect we will be involving the livestock commission because the rancher's just not going to change anything. He's had years to shape up. I know they WILL impound strays that cross the range fence, and it'll cost him $$ to get them back. And the foreman's threatened to take revenge if we do. (I suggested to my father that he start recording conversations when he talks to the guy.)
Did I mention the rancher is a well known car salesman who owns a couple very big dealerships? He views ranching as a 'fun hobby' and has said as much.
I have a feeling it's going to be an interesting summer.
Too bad we don't have freezer space for about 1500 pounds of beef ...[/QUOTE]
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