Dodge Ranch

LOCATION
Dodge Ranch is headquartered in northeast California, approximately 65 miles northeast of Susanville and 65 miles south of Alturas. The ranch is approximately 130 miles from Reno-Tahoe International Airport and the Susanville airport, which is a paved and lighted airport for private aircraft, is within an hour’s drive of the ranch. There is also a 2,400-foot-long turf airstrip on the ranch.
The ranch is accessed through State Highway 395, County Roads 502,503, 506, Tuledad Road, Marr Road, Hord Road, and Buckhorn Road, some of which are paved, but most are gravel roads.

LOCALE
Lassen County is located in the northeastern portion of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,730. The county seat and only incorporated city is Susanville, where shopping, restaurants, and other services are available. The major crops are alfalfa, wheat, oats, barley, and rye. Livestock and pastureland are also major parts of Lassen’s agricultural economy. Annual rainfall averages 11-17 inches per year.
The ranch is within what is known as the Madeline Plains and includes three communities: Madeline, Ravendale, and Termo. All three owed their existence to the Nevada-California Oregon Railroad, which arrived on the plains in 1899 and created Termo and, a few years later, Madeline.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Dodge Ranch is one of the largest remaining ranches in California, with 111 assessor’s parcels totaling 23,600 deeded acres and 224,971 acres of federal grazing allotments, spanning approximately twenty square miles on the Madeline Plains, east of the unincorporated community of Ravendale, California.
Currently, the ranch produces organic alfalfa on approximately 3,700 irrigated acres. Fourteen quality Nelson bubbler pivots deliver most of the water to the crop, and all but five of the pivots were installed new within the last five years.
The holding consists of four ranches: Horn Ranch, Marr Ranch, Evans Ranch, and Dodge Ranch (the property’s headquarters). A summary of the property’s structures includes five houses, a duplex, two bunkhouses, a guest house, four corrals/stables, five storage shed/barn buildings, a mechanic’s shop, a seed shop, and several additional structures dedicated to ranch operations.
The ranch is supplied with water through a system that includes over 20 wells, a series of canals, pipelines, lift pumps, culverts, and ponds, and the rights to abundant surface water from Dodge Reservoir and Buckhorn Reservoir.
In addition, several creeks and smaller irrigation reservoirs exist, and there is an opportunity to capture more water from snow melt and other sources to expand cropland.
Surprise Valley Electric provides the ranch with some of the least expensive electric power in the state of California. It delivers electricity with 19 miles of three-phase electric poles and over five miles of underground power lines. Solar power systems serve some of the homes.
The 224,971 acres of BLM’s Observation Grazing Allotment surrounds or is adjacent to the Dodge Ranch parcels and are leased for grazing approximately 4,452 AUMs through 2031. The BLM land includes several naturally occurring water resources for livestock.

WATER AND IRRIGATION
The water resources are both abundant for the Dodge Ranch and well protected. Excellent water rights are provided by on-site groundwater wells and surface water from Dodge Reservoir via Red Rock Creek, Buckhorn Reservoir via Buckhorn Canyon, Cold Spring Creek, and Painters Creek. Detailed water rights documents are available upon request.
The irrigation wells are situated throughout the ranch and have a combined reported output off approximately 17,400 gallons per minute (GPM). The surface water provides a maximum allotment of 21,268 acre-feet per year. The total combined current output of the well and surface water is 30,586 GPM. The ranch holds the water rights to Dodge Reservoir with no minimum pool requirement. Dodge Reservoir has a 10,000-acre-foot capacity, and Buckhorn Reservoir has approximately 2,000 acre-feet. (Note: water amounts are subject to availability due to winter rain and snow runoff.) Two of the five water rights are Pre-1914 Appropriative water rights.
Dodge Ranch is located in the Madeline Plains Sierra Valley Groundwater Basin, considered a low/very low priority basin. At this time, submitting a Groundwater Sustainability Plan is not required. The property is not located within a surface water district; however, it does possess deeded and riparian water rights to reservoirs, as indicated above.
Surface water is delivered to the irrigation canals, ponds, and culverts and distributed to pivot and flood-irrigated fields, where low-lift booster pumps irrigate certain fields and pivots. Over 20 wells exist, some of which service the pivots, flood-irrigate, and deliver stock and domestic water to the ranch. Nine of the 14 Nelson bubbler pivots were newly installed within the last five years. Over the past few years, irrigation ditches have been enhanced, and on-site ponds catch tailwater and hold irrigation water until it is utilized later. The ranch also has additional wells that are drilled and cased to allow for further farmland development.

CROP PRODUCTION AND SOIL
The ranch terrain is nearly level to gently undulating with 2,928 acres of pivot-irrigated, 324 acres of flood-irrigated, and 500 acres of pasture cropland.
The current organic alfalfa crop yield reported by the ranch tenant averages five tons of alfalfa per acre with three to four cuttings per season.
Soil reports on several of the pivots were performed about ten years ago and are available for review. Prospective buyers may wish to order soil reports.

LIVESTOCK OPERATIONS
Livestock operations are mostly based out of the Horn Ranch area, utilizing its irrigated pastures, gathering facilities, and adjoining BLM grazing allotments.
The current tenant is primarily focused on organic alfalfa operations but runs around 600 cow-calf pairs. The tenant believes that the ranch can easily carry up to 3,000 pairs utilizing the allotments and irrigated pastures.
The ranch has meadows as well as natural draws where the terrain gains elevation. There is some brush and juniper tree cover for cattle and wildlife to shelter. Livestock water is available with natural springs, stock water wells, and several ponds throughout the property.
Approximately 5,000 acres are perimeter and cross-fenced to allow for rotational grazing and there have been several upgrades to fencing over the years.
The grazing allotment is out the gate, which saves on transportation costs and improves overall livestock management. Lassen County is a fenced-out County. There are approximately 90,924 private deeded lands situated within the allotment. If deeded lands are not fenced, cattle under this allotment can graze these lands.
The BLM Observation Allotment allows for 4,452 AUMs from 4/15 to 10/31. These leases allow the lessee to utilize the grazing on the lands as it fits into their operation. The permit expires on 12/31/2031. The lessee has the first right to renew the lease. The current lease cost is $1.35 per AUM for a total annual expense of $6,010.20. The public leased lands have stock water rights that provide stock water from several springs.

IMPROVEMENTS

Dodge Ranch Headquarters
The Dodge Ranch headquarters compound provides housing for the owner/manager, farm and ranch hands, and guests. It also includes sheds for equipment storage, a barn, a machine shop, a pump house, and more.
Main House. The owner/manager’s home has three bedrooms, one and a half baths, a dining area, a living room, a kitchen, an office, and an enclosed porch.
Second/Guest House. The second home has four bedrooms and two baths and could serve as a guest or ranch manager’s home. Both the main and guest houses were updated over the last three years.
Duplex. With four bedrooms and two baths, this dwelling provides more permanent living for ranch hands, supervisors, and non-seasonal workers.
Office and Bunkhouse. This building has six bedrooms, a cook kitchen, a cook headquarters, a dining room, a living room with a wood stove, and men’s and women’s bathrooms with showers.
General Purpose Buildings. There are eight metal or wood buildings, some with overhead doors, and one with an adjacent covered area for storage. The mechanic’s shop is utilized for servicing and storing equipment. It has tools and replacement parts for the irrigation and other ranch equipment.  The remaining improvements include miscellaneous outbuildings such as a barn, pump house, scale with office, storage outbuilding, garage, and several other improvements.
Key site infrastructure includes three-phase power, two domestic wells, septic systems, gravel drives, a half-mile dirt airstrip, and perimeter and cross fencing.

Horn Ranch
Horn Ranch, located in the southeastern area of the ranch, is the base for cattle operations. It has a remodeled two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath house with a living room, kitchen, sunroom, and office.
Water is supplied by a spring. The house is solar powered and has a wood stove and propane heat. The corrals were recently constructed and have a capacity of 1,000+ head. They are constructed of steel posts, provide good functionality to the operation, and are in good condition.

Marr Ranch
The Marr Ranch is located in the eastern hills above the valley floor. Main House. The primary residence is a four-bedroom, one-bath, two-story stone house that dates back some 85 years. The house has a living room, kitchen, dining room, and pantry. A wood stove and propane heater provide heat, and solar panels provide power.
Bunkhouse. The bunkhouse has four individual bedrooms and two bathrooms. Heat and power are supplied by propane.
Duplex. The duplex has identical floor plans that include a bedroom, bathroom, dining area, kitchen, and living room. Wood stoves provide heat and propane provides heat, lights, and hot water.
More Structural Improvements. Marr Ranch has a shed, tack room, corral, and chicken coup. Water is supplied by a gravity-fed spring that has a solar-powered pump.

Evans Ranch
The Evans Ranch is located in the northern area of the ranch along the main road to the Dodge Reservoir. It includes a house, a small horse barn, and newly built corrals. The house needs updating before inhabiting, and has the potential to house a small family. The old barn provides utility in addition to the steel corrals. There is a domestic well and spring, but currently there is no power.

RECREATION
The ranch boasts abundant wildlife opportunities throughout the property. Numerous mule deer, elk, wild horses, coyotes, antelope, waterfowl, chukar and quail call the ranch home.
Dodge Reservoir, created in 1937 by the Dodge Ranch owners, covers 491 acres of Great Basin high-desert sagebrush. The reservoir is approximately 1.5 miles long, and has a max depth of around 72 feet.
The California Department of Fish and Game has historically stocked the reservoir with rainbow, eagle lake, lahontan cutthroat, and brown trout. Fishing is best during the spring and early summer. Access can be limited by its unimproved dirt roads during wet weather. There is a nearby campground operated by the BLM, containing picnic tables, a toilet, and a dirt boat ramp for small boats. The Dodge Ranch continues to hold the title to the reservoir’s water rights.

EQUIPMENT
Upon request, an extensive list of equipment included in the asking price will be provided. Some of the equipment currently on the ranch is owned by the tenant.

ZONING
U-C/U-C-2 (Upland Conservation District/A-P (Ag Preserve District))
This district classification is intended to be applied in the mountain and upland foothill areas of the county in which forestry, mining, grazing, and noncommercial recreation are natural and desirable uses, in which protection of the watershed lands from wildfire, erosion, pollution, and other detrimental effects is essential to the general welfare and in which land divisions will be regulated to ensure compatibility with primary uses. This district is also intended to be applied to land areas classified by the general plan as containing lands suitable for establishment as agricultural preserves.

PROPERTY TAX
Most of the ranch’s 111 assessor’s parcels are enrolled and benefit from The Williamson Act, estimated to save California agricultural landowners from 20 percent to 75 percent in property tax liability annually.
Property taxes for the 2023/2024 tax year were $88,015.79.

BROKER’S COMMENTS
Dodge Ranch’s water resources and out-of-the-gate grazing for cattle are a powerful combination. The quality organic alfalfa that has been successfully farmed on the ranch plus the potential to increase production make this property a worthwhile immediate and long-term investment. The ranch infrastructure is considerable with housing for ranch hands, plenty of equipment storage, and more. The high-desert ranch setting is hard to beat too. Big skies and open ranges!