Dodge Ranch
Dodge Ranch is one of the largest remaining ranches in California.
Marketing description
Dodge Ranch is a well-developed 23,600 +/- acre high-quality organic alfalfa farm and cattle operation. It is located in northeastern California, in Lassen County, northeast of Susanville. The ranch includes a 224,971-acre grazing allotment leased from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ranch covers approximately 20 square miles, subject to a few private inholdings within the BLM allotment.
The ranch’s excellent water resources, including reservoirs, wells, creeks, and an extensive irrigation system, set it apart. The ranch’s existing water assets efficiently serve its needs and offer potential for additional irrigated farm development.
The current ranch lessee farms approximately 3,700 acres of organic alfalfa utilizing 14 pivots on 2,928 acres and 824 acres of flood-irrigated and pasture fields. The pasture could be irrigated for additional farming or cattle grazing.
The BLM provides the ranch’s public grazing allotment, which currently allows for 4,452 animal unit months (AUMs). The permit expires in 2031, and Dodge Ranch holds the first right to renew the lease. A copy of the BLM lease can be reviewed upon request.
Nine dwellings, including homes, bunkhouses, and a guest home, are strategically placed in four ranch compounds. The ranch has numerous outbuildings and improvements, including storage sheds, barns, shops, and corrals.
Dodge Ranch was purchased in 2016 by the current owners, who have strategically improved the land and water systems to increase its farmable land for organic alfalfa, thereby increasing its value and profitability for future owners.
The ranch represents an excellent opportunity for agricultural operators looking to expand their current production
and/or use it as a cattle and hay operations headquarters. The current tenant has been doing both
for several years.
The extensive property also provides recreational opportunities, including hunting, miles of roads for
off-road vehicles, wildlife viewing, fishing, and more.
Investment highlights
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.
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