When Montana rancher Ches Meyer started listing his property with LandTrust.com for recreational use a few years ago, he wasn’t sure what to expect. He raises black Angus cattle on roughly 11,000 acres that are also home to plenty of wildlife, including white tail and mule deer, antelope, turkey and other bird species. For years, plenty of hunters have asked if they could use it.
“You have a hard time saying no,” he says. But he also worried about liability and how these people would treat his land. Listing with LandTrust.com provided a solution. LandTrust.com connects landowners and sportsmen on an easy-to-use platform and allows landowners to keep full control of the arrangement.
“Now I can run it all through them,” Ches says. “That’s what I wanted to get to. They explained their insurance process and their hands-off approach. The safety and the freedom were big selling points for me.”
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Landowners keep full control over pricing, their land, the activities offered and who they want to host, while also keeping 85% of the fee. Marketing, participant vetting, insurance, bookings and payments are all handled by LandTrust.com. Landowners can end their listing whenever they want.
“There’s no locked-in contract, and it doesn’t change your life at all,” Ches says. “It’s been really good. I like being able to say ‘no’ and ‘yes’ and controlling my own price. I never get a call from LandTrust saying that I have to get more hunters on the land.”
In his first year and a half with LandTrust.com, Eugene Holmberg, who farms 1,400 acres in northeastern Nebraska, has had a similar experience to Ches. “I went with LandTrust because I’ve got control,” Eugene says. “We keep rifle season just for the family, and I like that I can block that out on the calendar.”
He also likes the simplicity of the arrangement and that it requires minimal effort from him. “The extra income has been pretty nice,” he says. “They do all the collecting, and I don’t have to worry about any of that. They do all the hard work.”
Through LandTrust.com, he can get to know the hunters before they arrive, which is important to him. “I know who’s here that way,” he says. “This spring, I had quite a few turkey hunters, and they’ve all been really good.”
Ches Meyer agrees about how well hunters have treated his property. “We’ve made a little extra money and met some great people,” he says. “Maybe that’s a testament to their screening at LandTrust. I’m not trying to get rich off this, but if they’re shelling out a little bit of money, they’re going to respect your place.”
Extra income, full control and minimal effort. To find out more about this opportunity, visit landtrust.com.
Interested in learning more about earning recreation income? Find more information here: https://www.agweb.com/landtrust
