Texas or Tennessee for ranch land?

Question

Good evening and happy new year! I am looking into buying a piece of land 50-100 acres in either Texas or Tennessee. I would like something w/o a house on it for under 400k.

Land needs to have running water and an area for cattle/horses. I'd like something within 1 hour of a major city..do you guys suggest Texas or Tennessee for something like this?

Bruce Lynn · Answer

Lots of places in Texas to choose from. North Texas is horse country with lots of horse and cattle farms/ranches. People from all over the world are here raising horses. Denton County just north of DFW airport is home to more horse ranches than anyplace in the world. This also extends up to Cooke county on the Texas/Oklahoma border about 1hr north of DFW airport. Ranches are everywhere in Texas though...you'll find them in East Texas, North Texas, Central Texas and probably many other parts.

https://texashighways.com/cult...

https://www.land.com/lifestyle...

What is your idea or your plan?

https://texashighways.com/cult...

https://www.land.com/lifestyle...

What is your idea or your plan?

Mason Moreland · Answer

Texas is great. Price wise look a good ways out from the larger cities in east TX (Palestine, North of Lindale, outside of Lufkin) and be ready for a drive to groceries. I wouldn’t look anywhere west of I-35 or south of Austin if you are wanting to raise cattle and only have $400k. Not enough rain and or too expensive. Have you ever run cows before?

Be open to creative acquisition strategies as well. Lots of aging landowners. Lots of medium to large tracts that were inherited and forgotten about by out of state or big city heirs. May be some good opportunities for owner financing and definitely most will be off-market deals to be had if you put in some work.

Ty Ade · Answer

Central Texas; West of Austin and San Antonio areas fits your criteria.

Mike Reynolds · Answer

@Paulo DaSilva

Found this on a quick Google search that may be helpful in your search.

How many cows per acre in Texas? - Texas Landowners Association (landassociation.org)

Cows Per Acre in Texas

Texas Region

Improved/Managed Pasture

Native Pasture

Woodland

East Texas

1 AU / 1-3 Acres

1 AU / 3-6 Acres

1 AU / 50-75 Acres

Edwards Plateau

1 AU / 2-6 Acres

1 AU / 10-60 Acres

1 AU / 50-75 Acres

Pan Handle

1 AU / 2-6 Acres

1 AU / 20-50 Acres

N/A

Post Oak Savannah

1 AU / 3-6 Acres

1 AU / 8-15 Acres

1 AU / 50-75 Acres

South Texas Plains

1 AU / 2.5 – 8 Acres

1 AU / 15-30 Acres

1 AU / 35-60 Acres

West Texas

N/A

1 AU / 35-150 Acres

N/A

Polo Vazquez · Answer

I hear the best horse ranches are in East Texas by around Tyler TX. Land is also waaaayyy cheaper over there than San Antonio/Austin.Lots of oil in Texas too. Unfortunately you probably won't be buying mineral rights.

Mike Reynolds · Answer

Ok, you are talking about 2 different things here. Land is what most of us know here. Cattle, not so much.

So east Texas you can typically run 1 cow per acre if you feed a bit in the winter, dont have clay soil and have a creek on the property. In the eastern part of the state only.

In the western part of the state it will take 100-150 acres per one cow.

In the central, it is a toss up.

In the southern part of the state we have salt grass.

In the valley you need to go parcel by parcel.

Past San Angelo you may as well buy 15k-20k acres if you want to eat all year and sell a bit too.

Are you wanting to raise cows or buy land? They are 2 different genres but connected.

De Rasche · Answer

Cows are inexpensive right now, which is good for geting in and bad news if you are having to sell.

My pasture renter is about to retire and he just took a financial bath selling his cows.

Raising cattle is tough, so if you have limited experience doing so, you might want to buy an exisitng farm that is well managed and you can retain staff.

Travis Jacobs · Answer

You can easily get 50-100 Acres for 200k or less in TN that's within 1 hour of a major city or semi major city. Running water as in city water? or for the farm? Most should be on wells if outside of city limits. There's tons of options in Tennessee as it's overlooked in my opinion vs other states. It would also come down to preference, if you like flat land, or want to be closer to a certain area or don't care about hills. East TN close to Knoxville or near the smokies there's a lot of land or in the middle part of TN next to Mufreesboro. I believe property taxes are much lower in TN compared to Texas as well. I would weigh the options and pick what best suits your needs and wants. I personally like TN and it's overlooked but is starting to get hot because of covid and exodus from NY and CA.

Mason Moreland · Answer

Didn’t address this directly, sorry, but you’ll have to get creative on the acquisition to hit all those criteria AND within an hour of a major city. Budget would need to be $0.8MM-$4MM at least in most areas for that amount of acreage that close. Demand and cattle culture is high here.

Paulo DaSilva · Answer

Bruce,

I ideally would like to build two houses, a farm and have a good amount of pasture land. I want to have my father train horses down there until i retire and take over.

Texas or Tennessee for ranch land?

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