There is a pasture in our area that has a new rentor who lives well out of our area.  The pasture is surrounded by my, my son's and others cropland.  The fence is a good 2 wire electric fence identical to the fence we use for our cows that has worked flawlessly.  His cattle have been getting out repeatedly and mostly on my son's corn.  His crop insurance adjustor has estimated at least 20 acres of crop is 50% damaged and that was 2-3 weeks ago.  I think it is a lot more.  They have been on my corn and our neighbor's corn but less damage.  My son has put these cattle back in at least every other evening as have the neighbors.  The guy is a nice guy, apologized and has been down working on his fence and charger on a number of occasions.  Problem is, once cattle know they can get out and get a good taste of corn it is very difficult to get them to stay on their side of the fence even though they have plenty of grass to eat.

My daughter-in-law was driving along the pasture last night and a calf ran out in front of her and she hit it.  Didn't hurt the calf but it broke the bumper/grille which will cost at least $2 grand to repair.  

His calves are always out.  They are at least 600lb calves and eat a fair amount of corn.  He says you can't keep calves in.  I agree - when they are small but these are big calves that can cause a lot of damage.  And they give encouragement for their mothers to get out.   We have been very patient with him.  He has agreed to pay damages but is arguing that the insurance adjustor is too high.  He said the vehicle damage can be covered by insurance which is true - except for the deductible and hassle.  

If we were a$$holes we would contact the landowner and perhaps they would seek another tenant.  But that is kind of a lowball thing to do.  

Nebraska is an "open-range" state.  I am not sure exactly what that really means.  But I do know that assets under the control of someone else should not be able to destroy another person's assets causing financial harm without compensation.  There is nothing we can do to protect our crops and vehicles.  It has just gone too far.  

We have cattle and 1 or 2 occasionally get out.  Just the part of owning cows.  But we deal with it right away.  Fix and improve fence, move the perpetrators out of the pasture or whatever.  On a couple of occasions I have even paid for damages without the crop owner asking.

This "good neighbor" policy has its limits.

Would like to hear what others have done.