$7,500,000

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Montana Ranch For Sale – Cattleman’s Dream and a Cowboy’s Paradise!  Nearly 38,000 acres in Prairie County near Terry, Montana.  Attractive improvements, excellent water and superb summer range.  Efficient, working ranch.

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Acreage Breakdown
Total Acreage Approximate 37,881 Acres +/-

Deeded Land:  15,548 Acres +/-
Real Estate Taxes approximate $0.77 per acre or about $12,000.00 per year.

BLM Lease:  Approximate 19,790 Acres which is 4320 A.U.M.s
 4320 A.U.M.s X $2.00/AUM = $8640.00 per year

BLM leases are leased on an A.U.M. basis. One A.U.M is the amount of forage required by one cow and calf per month.  Twelve A.U.M.s are equal to one animal unit.  The BLM lease is attached to the deeded lands for economic stability.  No one else can take your BLM lease or raise the bid on you.  Leases are renewed every 10 years.  

State of Montana Lease:  2,543 Acres +/-
 583 A.U.M.s X $ 6.23/A.U.M. = $3632.09 per year

There are approximately four sections under four different leases. 
State leases are staggered so that no more than one lease is up for renewal at one time.  The term of a State lease is ten years.  One of the leases has just been renewed and other three have six to nine years left on current lease.  These four leases have been part of this ranch since the 1920’s, when the current system of leasing was implemented. 

Locale

The ranch headquarters lay nestled in the beautiful and historic Cherry Creek Valley just north of the Yellowstone River.

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This area is richly steeped in western history and this location at the confluence of three creeks where the headquarters sit played a prominent role in that history.  The presence of permanent year-round water made this a favorite location to camp from the Indians to the Military to the buffalo hunters to the early cattlemen. 

In late October 1876 Colonel Nelson A. Miles known as “Bear Coat” to the Sioux camped in this very location for two days while trying to negotiate with Sitting Bull.  Military issue shell casing and other artifacts are still regularly found at this campsite.

Beginning in 1890 and continuing for better than 25 years, this particular location was the “End of the Trail” for the famous XIT ranch, the largest ranch in the world at the time.  Here, they turned loose their leg-weary Texas steers after more than a thousand dusty miles on the trail north.

There is no doubt that this is a unique and special location.

General Description

The Seven Ranch is a classic Eastern Montana cake and grass ranch with an ideal mix and diversity of terrain for each season of use.  From miles of open rolling heavily grassed summer range with timbered draws for shade to more sheltered country for spring and fall, some of the best grass on the ranch are in these pastures which lay along Cherry, Cedar, and Brackett Creeks.

The winter range is as good as there is anywhere, period.  Grass covered flats and plateaus intercepted by sharp buttes and long deep flat –bottomed cedar draws that twist and turn enough that no matter which way the wind blows livestock find shelter and are never exposed.  There is also a lot of southern exposure that melts and bares off when a lot of country is still snow covered.

This statement is documented by the fact that hay has been fed to the mature cows only three times in the past sixty-three years: 1948-49, 1978-79, and 2009-10.  Think about that when pricing machinery.

The primary range grass is western wheat, blue grama, buffalo, green needle, and blue bunch wheat grass.  There is very little cactus or cheat grass which attests to good ranch management.

The ranch lays exceptionally well with the rougher winter country located on the southern end of the ranch and the more open summer country farther north.  Domestic livestock have the same inherent migratory instinct as wildlife to drift north in the spring and south in the fall.  This Law of Nature helps immensely in the ease of movement of livestock by reducing the labor requirements needed. Simply open a gate, get out of the way, and count the cattle through.   

Improvements

Improvements at the ranch headquarters are new construction all since 2004.  This includes a ranch style 2100 square foot home consisting of the main floor and a fully finished basement totaling 4200 square feet of living space.

The home is cedar-sided with a covered 16’ X 70’ patio of exposed aggregate with a built in fire pit.  The main floor includes a great room with a fireplace, kitchen-dining room, three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (including a master suite), and a mud room.  The flooring is solid oak and ceramic tile on the main floor.  The basement is finished in knotty pine and includes a den, two bedrooms, one bathroom, storage rooms, and a laundry room.

Custom made oak cabinets are in the kitchen, three bathrooms, and mud room.  Interior doors are solid wood throughout the home, oak upstairs and pine downstairs.  This is a very comfortable home with an open floor plan with big rooms and big windows that “bring the outside in”.

Other improvements include a 56’ X 64’ horse barn with saddle room, tie stalls, and feed storage facilities.  Attached is a 80’ X 64’  open-span calving barn/riding area with 16’ sidewalls with lights and insulation.  There are two 16’ X 32’ L shaped open face barns in the horse corrals adjacent to the horse barn.  There is also a 24’ X 128’ open face barn tied into the corrals adjacent to the calving barn and a 10’ X 20’ storage shed.

All the out buildings were roofed and sided in the same color scheme to gracefully blend into the surrounding landscape. 

The entire corral system including the adjoining traps was laid out and built with the goal of taking advantage of the habits and behavior of cattle and other livestock so as to be able to work cattle with as small as crew as possible in the shortest amount of time to eliminate stress and “shrink” as the old cowman said: “Time is shrink and shrink is money.”

The centerpiece of these corrals is a 60,000 lbs type S Fairbanks-Morse scale with a 13’ X 34’ cement deck capable of weighing half of a pot load of calves at a time.  There are two ground-level loading chutes which cuts the loading time by more than half.

A second set of improvements are located at the northern end of the ranch which includes a good older home, 30’ X 50’ shop with cement floor and welding outlets and miscellaneous out buildings.  Another set of new, very good corrals built on the same blueprint as the corrals at the headquarters with an identical 60,000 lbs scale just being installed and near completion. 

A person would have a hard time finding another ranch with a better or nicer set of improvements in this condition.  We feel the improvements add a tremendous amount of depreciation that you are not necessarily having to pay for.  You need to see this ranch for yourself.  You will not be disappointed. 

General Operation

The carrying capacity for this ranch is rated at approximately 800 cows.  The current operator starts calving about the 1st of May and finishes up about the middle of June.  Calves are marketed in the early part of November.  Supplemental feeding generally starts just after January 1st and ends sometime around the middle of April whenever the grass comes.
 
There are 15 major pastures that are grazed in a rotational manner.  These pastures range in size from two sections to eight sections.  There are also eight different traps or small pastures, four each around both sets of corrals for added ease and efficiency of livestock management during branding and shipping.  These traps range in size from 50-60 acres to about a section and a half.

All boundary and cross-fences are a minimum of four wires and every major cross fence and most of the perimeter has been re-cornered with double H braces and pipe cross bars.  In addition to this there has been approximately 20 miles of new fence built.  Also, most of the shipping traps have five to seven wires. 

The ranch also includes approximately 120 acres that are flood irrigated through a system of laser-leveled dikes that are below a diversion dam on Brackett creek.  The water rights on this system date back to the early 1920’s and are senior on the Brackett creek.  Hay production varies from year to year but average is probably somewhere around one and a half to two ton per acre.

State highway 253 which is paved runs through the ranch east to west and a gravel county road runs through the ranch south to north.  These roads provide excellent all weather access which is a very desirable asset for a ranch. 

The ranch is handled by the owners and usually one full time employee with an absolute minimum of machinery.  Two older four wheel drive pickups, and two older 16’ stock trailers, two cake feeders, two older loader tractors, a bobcat skid steer, and some good saddle horses is all the equipment needed to operate the ranch currently.

In these times of high fuel costs, unbelievably high machinery costs and hard to find (and keep) labor, the value of these low-cost, low-input, low-labor ranches can hardly be overstated.

Livestock Water

The ranch is without question one of the very best watered ranches in Eastern Montana.  There are over 35 electric wells ranging in depth from 30 to 390 feet.  33 of these wells have circular cement or steel tanks 30 to 33 feet in diameter.  Each of these tanks holds approximately 10,000 gallons of water.  Included in these are four separate wells that produce in excess of 35 gpm.  These four wells have their own individual pipeline systems of several miles each.  Totaling approximate 15 miles of pipeline with 36 twelve foot rubber tire tanks.  22 of these tire tanks have insulated cement lids for winter time use.  There are no windmills on the ranch.
 
The three major drainages that flow through the ranch are Cherry Creek, Cedar Creek, and Brackett Creek.  These are intermittent streams that flow from spring to late summer, but always have long, deep, spring fed pools that provide good water year-round.  There are also several reservoirs or dirt tanks.

Nowhere on the ranch does a cow have to walk much more than a half a mile to get a drink.

Wildlife Resources

The ranch provides excellent habitat to a large number of wildlife species.  Trophy mule deer, some whitetail deer, and world-class pronghorn, and occasionally some elk are at home here on the ranch.  Wild turkeys, sage grouse, and sharp tailed grouse are abundant for the enjoyment of bird hunters and coyotes will about run over the top of you when they hear a predator call.  The ranch is currently leased to an outfitter and he has expressed interest in continuing the lease.  The fishing opportunities on the Yellowstone River are known worldwide and speak for themselves.  There are many different species of fish to excite the angler. 

Location

The Seven Ranch is located in Prairie County, Montana in the east-central portion of the state approximately two miles north of the community of Terry, Montana, population approximately 600.  Ranches in the area are primarily serviced by the towns of Miles City and Glendive.  Here, all the staples needed to operate the ranch are available within a 35- minute drive.  Billings, the state’s largest city is located about 185 miles southwest of the ranch via US Highway 94.  Here you will find a full range of services, markets and supplies as well as Montana’s largest commercial airport.  Major carriers such as Horizon, Allegiant, Delta and United combine to offer multiple flights each day to numerous destinations through the continental United States.

JT Korkow, Listing Agent, 406-554-3123