917 Acres in Hayes Center, NE - $1,790,000

There are three food plots located on the property that will be planted to milo/sorghum mix as the growing season begins. This is an excellent upland mix that will provide a valuable food source for upland birds and other wildlife.

Improvements

A well maintained and updated 4-bedroom and 1 bathroom, 2346 +/- square foot home featuring nice finishes throughout. There is a 75’x40 steel building with open storage and 1/3 finished and heated shop space. Additionally there multiple smaller outbuildings and a large fenced garden area.

In 2023 the Seller installed a solar well and two large galvanized tanks on the east side of the ranch which now provides an excellent water source for wildlife and livestock where there had not been one for many years.

Recreation

This is a well designed hunting property that holds pheasants, quail, turkeys and grouse as well as mule deer and whitetail deer. Hundreds of Cedar trees and deciduous trees are lined throughout the property providing cover for the many critters that call the ranch home. There are multiple CRP fields that provide excellent upland bird habitat and the canyons in the pastures offer a high quality spot and stalk deer hunting or predator hunting as well. The property is located less than 30 minutes from Swanson Lake, which provides excellent opportunity for fishing and water sports. Also within 20 minutes to the north, sits Camp Hayes and Hayes Center State Wildlife area. Lake McConaughy and Red Willow Reservoir are a little over an hour from the property and both offer excellent fishing and water sports as well as public hunting access on the thousands of acres of designated hunting areas surrounding each lake. The area of southwest Nebraska is known for high quality mule deer hunting and trophy class deer. The Seller has augmented the pheasant population with a planting program both last fall in 2023 and in spring of 2024.

Agriculture

Currently the property has multiple CRP contracts and produces approximately $26,800 in income as well as approximately $8010 cattle grazing lease on a year to year basis. Fences around the property are barbed wire and mix of wood and steel fence posts.

Water/Mineral Rights & Natural Resources

Any owned mineral rights will convey.

Region & Climate

Hayes County, Nebraska receives approximately 21+/- inches of rainfall and 29 +/- inches of snow annually.

Thehot seasonlasts for3.3 months, fromJune 4toSeptember 15, with an average daily high temperature above80F. The hottest month of the year in Hayes Center isJuly, with an average high of89Fand low of63F.

Thecold seasonlasts for3.2 months, fromNovember 21toFebruary 26, with an average daily high temperature below49F. The coldest month of the year in Hayes Center isJanuary, with an average low of17Fand high of40F.

History

Hayes County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 856. Its county seat is Hayes Center. The county was created in1877, and was organized in 1884. It was named for Rutherford B. Hayes, the US President at the time of the county’s creation.

Hayes Center was known as the Wind-Mill City as each family had their own wind-mill for their water supply, there was also a public wind-mill and tank that was located in the middle of main street, where people watered their livestock. But today wind-mills are a thing of the past, as even most farmers use electric pumps to get their water supply.

The country now included in Hayes County was formerly part of the great buffalo range, the cherished hunting grounds of the Indians. Settlement was delayed for many years because of the hostility of the Red Men. Many bloody battles were fought between the various Indian tribes, particularly the Pawnee and the Sioux, over the possession and use of this ground.

The first white men were hunters. Doctor W. F. Carver, Buffalo Bill Cody, and other famous frontier characters hunted here to supply meat for the workmen and soldiers during the building of the Union Pacific railroad in 1868-69. In the early seventies sportsmen came from all over the world to hunt in the valley of the Red Willow, the Frenchman’s Fork and the Stinking Water, the latter stream got its name from the hundreds of rotting carcasses left on its bank and in its bed by the hunters. Carver claimed in 1873 that he himself had killed at least thirty thousand buffalo. This was the year after the famous hunt staged with elaborate ceremony in honor of Grand Duke Alexis, twenty-two year old brother of the reigning Czar of Russia. This party, led by Buffalo Bill Cody as chief of scouts and accompanied by General Sheriden and officers from Fort McPherson, camped the Big Blackwood eight miles northeast of the present site of Hayes Center. The famous Sioux Chief, Spotted Tail, along with one hundred warriors presented a demonstration of the Indian method of hunting. Followed by a war dance, the whole affair was a brilliant success and the Duke himself succeeded in killing several buffalo.

Location

Hayes County Upland and CRP is located just of Hwy 25 north of Palisade, Nebraska. It is within a 3.5 hour drive of Denver and the front range of Colorado and 4 hours from Lincoln, Nebraska. Access is easy from highway 25 as well as the two county maintained roads that border the property.

Call Clay Owens or Dax Hayden today for more details or to see this property.