What do you want to do with the land? Research a tract, compare its earning potential, plan improvements or work through a ranch project.
Use these starting points to decide which records to request and who can confirm them. Start a worksheet for your tract.
Start with the job the land needs to do: a homesite, hunting, hay, grazing, a lease or a business location. Gather the legal description, survey, access documents, current leases and utility contacts. Walk the tract with those records in hand.
Assemble maps, leases, improvement records, water information and recent production records. Identify what conveys with the sale and what needs confirmation. Compare closed sales with similar access, use and improvements.
Give the local planning office your parcel and proposed use. Ask about zoning, subdivision review and floodplain requirements. Ask road and utility providers about driveway approval, available capacity, extension cost and timing. For a building site, confirm drainage, soils and site-work costs with the project team.
Oklahoma Commerce site selection · FEMA Flood Map Service Center
Estimate recurring income, vacancy, taxes, insurance, maintenance and management. Run a second case with lower rent and higher costs. Check lease terms, tenant access and renewal dates. For recreational land, confirm seasonal access, water and existing hunting leases.
Enter your own figures. Each estimate uses the units and assumptions shown.
Compare annual cash income before financing and income tax. Enter annual costs for the whole tract. Appreciation and resale are outside this estimate.
Enter each uninterrupted wire run separately, excluding gate openings. Enter the actual number of shared corner, end, gate and brace posts once. The estimate counts intermediate line posts separately. Strand count is the number of horizontal wires. Three-point or four-point describes the barbs on a product. Use your supplier’s actual roll length and price.
Estimate a rectangular pad, driveway or slab. Enter an average depth and your supplier’s allowance. For gravel tonnage, ask the supplier for the bulk density of the specific material.
Use one crop, a consistent sale unit and harvested acres. Gross margin subtracts only the costs you enter. Adjust yield and price to compare a dry year with your expected year.
For one herd moving through equal-sized paddocks. Choose recovery time based on season and plant regrowth. Check water access and available forage before choosing a stocking rate.
For one feed and one group at a time. Use an as-fed allowance from your feeding plan. Enter dry matter and crude protein from a feed analysis on the stated bases. Run separate groups for cows and calves. Protein shown is supplied by this feed alone.
Field guides for Oklahoma owners and operators.
Divide the field by soil type and management history. For a routine pasture fertility sample, take 20 cores about 6 inches deep across each uniform area. Avoid manure piles, feeding areas and recently fertilized spots. Mix each area’s cores in its own clean plastic bucket. Label the bag with the field and intended crop, then submit it through your county Extension office. Confirm depth with the lab for other tests.
OSU soil sampling instructions · Find your county Extension office
Rest between grazing periods gives plants time to regrow. Sketch existing water, shade, gates and lanes before dividing a pasture. Try strips along a lane or paddocks served by a shared water point. Move cattle according to available forage and recovery. Adjust rest as growth slows.
Separate dry cows, lactating cows and growing calves when reviewing a feed plan. Cow weight, stage of production, calf growth target and forage quality change the requirements. Compare crude protein on the same moisture basis. For example, 10 lb of dry matter at 12% crude protein supplies 1.2 lb of crude protein. Energy, minerals and total intake also matter. Use a forage analysis with your nutritionist.
For a bunk line, compare feeding frequency, available eating space, drainage and equipment access. For creep feeding, plan calf-only access and compare the cost of supplemental feed with the value of added calf gain.
List your heaviest bale, loader lift height, implement PTO horsepower, hydraulic flow, hitch category, gate width and terrain. Compare the tractor and implement manuals together, including loader capacity at the actual load center and required ballast. Then compare tested performance.
Use harvested acres, yield records, local prices and field-specific costs. For hay, include cutting, raking, baling and hauling. Enter yield and price in matching units. OSU offers separate budgets for crops and livestock.
Use these references and the sketch tool to prepare for a conversation with your builder, surveyor or cattle handling specialist.
Mark buildings, gates, equipment routes, water and loading areas on a concept sketch. Check trailer turning room and road sight distance at the entrance. Review setbacks, drainage, structural loads and driveway requirements with the responsible professionals before construction.
Arkansas Extension farm building plans · LSU beef facility and feeder plans
Trace the cattle route from holding pen through the crowding area, alley and chute. Compare a curved sweep with a Bud Box in light of handler experience, animal flow, escape routes and existing space. Have an experienced facility designer review the concept on site.
K-State Bud Box design guide (PDF) · K-State facility design guidance
Choose a feature and its footprint. Enter offsets from the left and bottom of the sketch, then add it. You can also tap the grid to place its lower-left corner. Grid lines are 25 feet apart on a 300 × 200 ft planning area. Use this scale sketch for discussion. Construction and boundary work need site measurements and professional review.
Your sketch stays in this tab. Print it or save it as a PDF before leaving.
Tell us its location and what you want to do there. We can help you organize the property questions and identify the right local contacts.
Discuss your land plans with Black Felt Groups