Pasturing Animals on State Land in Michigan

[Leta]

Hello there. I am looking for info about the legality of pasturing animals on state land. I live in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

We are looking for vacant land and/or a house with acreage specifically so that we can start raising critters for eggs, milk, and meat.

We are looking at a place right now that's just up the road from some friends of ours, and it looks just about perfect, but for the fact that it's only on three acres. It is bounded, however, by state and CFR land.

CFR land is pretty unusual, I think it may even be unique to the U.P. The land is owned by the lumber companies, and in exchange for paying a pittance in property taxes (I think it's like $1/acre), the land is open to the public. So I think pasturing animals there, so long as they were put in the barn at night, would be legal. If anyone knows anything more about this and is willing to share, I would be very appreciative.

I have heard of people pasturing animals on state land, but nothing specific, and my Google-fu is failing me.

We are looking at having chickens, goats, and pigs, if that makes a difference, and thinking about using portable electric fencing if we are legally able to pasture them on state/CFR land.

If anyone knows about this, or can point me to further resources, I would be very grateful!

 

[goodhors]

I am going to say YOUR using the land that way is illegal. I have never known the Department of Natural Resources giving grazing leases for Michigan forests. Western States lease grazing rights, but not Michigan that I EVER heard of. Michigan leases all kinds of other land use rights, drilling, lumbering, but not grazing.

I would hesitate to use temporary fencing with hogs, they are very hard on fencing. Down here in the Lower Penninsula, we are starting to have to deal with Wild Hogs, escaped pigs from hunting farms. Russian Boars, other NASTY animals that will crossbreed with domestic pigs. Law right now allows a loose pig to be shot on sight, to prevent breeding and spread of disease to domestic pig herds.

As another forest user, I don't want to meet any loose hogs or other livestock in the woods!

I don't want domestic animals in the Michigan woods, destroying habitat. Much is quite delicatly balanced, and non-native animals are not part of that system.

I would continue my search for house with sufficient livestock acreage included, not depend on using forest land for keeping my animals. I have no idea what the rules are with CFR land, how they tax it. I guess if it is that unfair, you need to get politically involved to change the rules of play.

I have western States friends, and they talk about how the grazing leases have been MUCH reduced, time in and out shortened, head counts reduced. AND the Rangers are RIGHT ON YOU if there is ANY CHANCE you don't have your cattle off when specified. HUGE fines and chance of lease loss in the future.

You first place to contact would be the local Michigan Department of Natural Resources, to see how forests are managed. They can direct you to the higher levels upward, if the answers you get are unsatisfactory.

I would emphasize NOT getting ANY hope up about using the land for grazing. This is not a use for the forests that is expected or common in Michigan, and I can't believe they would change the rules for one person. I am not sure what kind of fines you would have to pay, if you "just let it happen" by ignoring the property boundaries. They will fine heavily on some offenses.

Seems a lot easier to just buy the property size you need, which will allow you to use it the way you wish and no problems looming over you. But Yooper thinking is different than Troll thinking, very different.

 

[twentynine]

As far as having a small farm and raising animals for meat. I would not own one animal that I couldn't graze on land I hold the title, or a valid lease.

 

[Leta]

I'm originally a troll. The way the locals tell it, I'm not even a Yooper yet, since we haven't lived here through seven winters, though the winter of 2011-2012 will be our seventh winter and therefore our official entryway into Yooperdom.

Thanks for the responses. We haven't spent a dime yet, which is why I'm asking these questions NOW. I am a very conservative person when it comes to personal finance, so even if it means passing up a "steal" (which, every place is according to realtors ), I want to know all the legal and outs before I sign anything.

As far as CFA land goes, I double checked, and CFA owners pay $1.25 per acre in taxes. I don't really think of this as unfair, since it opens up so much more land to public use. It doesn't explicitly say that CFA can't be used to pasture livestock, but it doesn't say that it is an acceptable use, either, which is why I asked here. It's a very good point, though, about how livestock pasture leases are mostly out West.

I could work my fingers to the bone and still never change the CFA rules. Yoopers love them some public land. (Something like 30% of the entire U.P. land mass is public, and over 50% of that is CFA land.) A CFA land border is considered something that increases the value of the adjoining property. The part of it that rankles the locals here is how many out of state & downstate hunting permits are sold and used on U.P. CFA land. It makes the state a lot of money, and some local businesses survive on those tourist dollars, but the downstate deer herd is actually in better shape than the U.P. deer herd, and the tourists bag deer that could go into a local family's freezer. (Not saying I agree, but that's the thinking as I understand it.) Pickings have gotten so slim that it's not worth the license to try to hunt public land for meat (rather than sport) so lots of local people don't bother anymore.

I certainly don't blame anyone for not wanting to encounter loose livestock in the woods (or anywhere, for that matter) but CFA land permits snowmobiling, which is unambiguously more environmentally problematic than contained and appropriately managed livestock, so I don't really think that ecological impact is something that makes the final determination when they set the rules.

It does say that you can't erect a permanent structure on CFA land, and the example that they give is a deer blind. I honestly don't know if a portable electric fence would be considered permanent or not. On the one hand, it's a fence, and on the other hand, it's portable...?

I have called and emailed the DNR, and nobody has called me back yet (it's been a couple weeks). I think I might contact the DEQ and/or the county extension office next.

I don't expect them to change the rules for me, or even make an exception, but even by a thorough reading of the DNR website CFA page, it's not clear if pasturing is permitted or not.

I could not agree more that feral hogs are a big problem. I have family in S MI, TN, TX, and everyone who lives in a rural area or has a big piece of land has had groups of hogs destroy things. They are too big and scary, also. DH and I have discussed this at length. There aren't feral hogs here YET, and neither one of us thinks that a stray domesticated animal could survive the winters here, but the real problem is the interbreeding with the enormous and infinitely scarier and climate acclimated loose hunting hogs. Of course, we would not want our pig(s) to get loose, but I would hate to contribute to the problem if an accident should happen.

I think that we probably won't purchase this particular house, but I think this would be good information to be armed with because so many of the properties we've looked at have a public land border.

Thanks, guys!