Agriculture Attorney in the Texas Panhandle
Legal Counsel for the Farmers and Ranchers Who Feed the Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle produces more beef than almost any region on earth, irrigates vast stretches of High Plains farmland from one of the most critical aquifers in the nation, and drives a multi-billion dollar agricultural economy that touches every community from Dalhart to Childress. When legal disputes arise in that economy — water rights conflicts, lease disagreements, contract disputes, livestock matters, regulatory compliance issues, or the complicated intersection of agricultural land and oil and gas operations — you need an agriculture attorney in the Texas Panhandle who understands this industry from the inside. At Stockard, Johnston, Brown, Netardus & Doyle, partner Kenneth Netardus has been serving the Panhandle agricultural community for decades.
Agriculture Law in the Texas Panhandle Requires More Than Legal Knowledge — It Requires Local Roots
Agricultural law is one of the most locally specific areas of legal practice that exists. The legal issues that arise on a Panhandle feedlot are not the same as those that arise on a Central Texas ranch. The water law that governs irrigation in Deaf Smith County operates under a framework specific to the Ogallala Aquifer and the local Groundwater Conservation Districts that manage it. The interaction between surface agricultural operations and subsurface oil and gas rights is a daily reality in this region in ways it simply is not elsewhere. Handling agriculture law in the Texas Panhandle requires an attorney who has been doing it here long enough to know the land, the law, and the community.
Partner Kenneth Netardus has been practicing agriculture law as an attorney serving the Texas Panhandle for nearly three decades — representing farmers, ranchers, feedlot operators, agribusinesses, and rural landowners in the full range of legal matters that arise in this region’s agricultural economy. Kenneth and his wife Hillary have lived in Amarillo since 2001, and their daughters are active 4-H members who show livestock — a detail that reflects the depth of the family’s roots in the agricultural community this firm serves. When you bring an agricultural legal matter to Kenneth, you are talking to someone who understands the stakes from a perspective that goes beyond the law.
Our agriculture law practice also draws on the firm’s deep expertise in oil and gas law — because for many Panhandle landowners and agricultural operations, the two are inseparable. Mineral rights that have been severed from surface agricultural land, pipeline easements crossing working farms and ranches, royalty payments that supplement agricultural income, and surface damage from energy operations affecting crop production and livestock operations are all legal issues that require an attorney with expertise in both areas. We handle them together because they arise together.
Agriculture Law Matters We Handle Across the Texas Panhandle
If you need a water rights attorney in Amarillo, Texas, you are likely dealing with one of the most consequential and increasingly litigated areas of law in the Texas Panhandle. Groundwater in the Panhandle is governed by the rule of capture under Texas law, subject to management by local Groundwater Conservation Districts. As aquifer levels in the Ogallala decline and demand from agricultural, municipal, and industrial users continues, conflicts over permitted pumping volumes, well spacing, and water transfer agreements are becoming more common and more complex. We represent farmers, ranchers, and agricultural operations in groundwater disputes, GCD permit proceedings, and water purchase and transfer agreements.
Farm & Ranch Lease Disputes
As a farm and ranch lawyer serving the Texas Panhandle, we handle disputes arising from agricultural leases — including share crop arrangements, cash rent leases, grazing leases, and custom farming agreements. These disputes often involve questions about the condition of the land at the end of a lease term, improvements made by the tenant, compliance with conservation practices required under USDA programs, and the respective rights of landlord and tenant when a lease is terminated or disputed. We represent both landowners and agricultural tenants in lease disputes throughout the Panhandle region.
Agricultural Contracts
As an agricultural contract attorney in Amarillo, we draft, review, and litigate agricultural contracts across a wide range of transaction types — including grain marketing contracts, cattle feeding agreements, custom harvesting contracts, crop insurance disputes, and contracts for the purchase and sale of agricultural commodities. Contract disputes in the agricultural context often involve rapidly changing market conditions, perishable commodities, and complex pricing mechanisms that require both legal expertise and an understanding of how agricultural markets operate.
Livestock & Cattle Law
The Texas Panhandle is home to the largest concentration of cattle feedlots in the nation, and the legal issues that arise in the feedlot and ranching industry are a significant part of our agriculture law practice. As a feedlot attorney serving the Texas Panhandle, we handle cattle purchase and sale disputes, feeding agreement conflicts, livestock disease and death claims, brand disputes, estray cattle matters, and the regulatory compliance requirements that apply to large-scale livestock operations. We understand the business of cattle feeding and ranching from the perspective of clients who have spent their careers in it.
USDA & Regulatory Compliance
Federal and state agricultural regulations create a significant compliance burden for Panhandle farming and ranching operations — from USDA Farm Service Agency program requirements and crop insurance regulations to environmental compliance for concentrated animal feeding operations and pesticide application requirements. We help agricultural clients navigate regulatory compliance issues, respond to agency enforcement actions, and appeal adverse decisions by USDA agencies including the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Environmental Compliance for Agricultural Operations
Large-scale agricultural operations in the Texas Panhandle — feedlots, dairies, and intensive crop production facilities — face environmental compliance requirements under both federal and state law, including Clean Water Act requirements, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permits, and nutrient management plan requirements. When regulatory agencies assert that an agricultural operation has violated environmental standards, the consequences can be severe — including permit revocation, operational restrictions, and significant civil penalties. We represent agricultural operators in environmental compliance matters and in disputes with regulatory agencies.
Oil & Gas on Agricultural Land
For many Panhandle landowners, the most complicated legal issues arise at the intersection of agricultural operations and oil and gas production. As a landowner attorney in Amarillo, TX, we handle surface damage claims by agricultural landowners against energy operators, negotiate surface use agreements that protect farming and ranching operations from disruption, represent landowners in pipeline easement negotiations, and address the groundwater quality and availability concerns that can arise when energy production occurs near irrigated agricultural operations. Our combined depth in both agriculture law and oil and gas law makes us uniquely positioned to handle matters that involve both.
Agricultural Property Disputes
Disputes involving agricultural real estate — boundary conflicts, adverse possession claims, easement disputes, partition actions among co-owners, and property tax protests — arise regularly in the Texas Panhandle’s rural property landscape. We represent landowners, farmers, ranchers, and agricultural investors in agricultural property disputes before state courts and administrative agencies, and we bring the regional knowledge needed to evaluate these disputes accurately in the context of how agricultural land is used, valued, and transferred in this market.
Water Rights in the Texas Panhandle — Understanding the Ogallala Aquifer and Texas Groundwater Law
The Aquifer’s Role
The Ogallala Aquifer underlies approximately 174,000 square miles of the Great Plains, stretching from South Dakota to Texas — and the Texas Panhandle sits above one of its most heavily used sections. The aquifer is the primary water source for irrigation across the High Plains, supporting the crop production and livestock operations that make the Panhandle one of the most productive agricultural regions in the nation. Corn, wheat, grain sorghum, and cotton production in Deaf Smith, Castro, Swisher, Parmer, and surrounding counties depends heavily on Ogallala water. Without it, the agricultural economy of the Texas Panhandle as it exists today could not function.
The Legal Framework
Texas groundwater law is governed by the rule of capture — sometimes called the law of the biggest pump — which generally allows a landowner to pump as much water as they can from beneath their property, subject to management by local Groundwater Conservation Districts. The Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District, the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1, and other local GCDs manage groundwater production across the Panhandle region through permitted pumping volumes, well spacing requirements, and conservation programs. These districts have the authority to restrict production in ways that can significantly affect the viability of an agricultural operation, and disputes with GCDs over permit denials, production limits, and water management decisions are a growing area of agricultural litigation.
The Declining Water Problem
The Ogallala is a finite resource that is being depleted faster than it recharges. Water table levels across the Texas Panhandle have declined significantly over the past several decades in many areas — in some locations by more than 100 feet. As the aquifer declines, the cost of irrigation increases, the availability of water becomes less certain, and the conflicts over remaining resources intensify. Water purchase agreements, water transfer transactions, and disputes between competing users — including agricultural operations, municipalities, and industrial users — are all becoming more frequent and more consequential. If your agricultural operation depends on groundwater access, understanding your legal rights under Texas law and your local GCD’s regulations is not optional — it is essential to the long-term viability of your operation.
Is Your Agricultural Operation's Water Access Protected?
If your farming or ranching operation depends on groundwater from the Ogallala Aquifer, you should know what permitted pumping volumes you hold, how your local GCD’s rules affect your operation, and what legal options you have if your water access is threatened. As a water rights attorney in Amarillo, Texas, we help agricultural clients understand and protect their water rights before a dispute arises — not just after.
Agricultural Clients We Serve Across the Texas Panhandle
As an agriculture attorney serving the Texas Panhandle, we represent clients across every sector of the region’s agricultural economy — from individual family farm and ranch operations to large-scale agribusinesses with complex legal needs. Our clients are located throughout the Panhandle, including the farming communities of Hereford, Dalhart, Canyon, Pampa, Tulia, Plainview, and the surrounding counties.
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Family Farms & Ranches
Individual farm and ranch families dealing with lease disputes, water rights issues, agricultural contracts, estate planning for agricultural land, and the day-to-day legal needs of a working agricultural operation. -
Cattle Feedlot Operations
Panhandle feedlot operators navigating cattle purchase and sale disputes, feeding agreement conflicts, regulatory compliance requirements, environmental permits, and the complex contractual relationships that characterize large-scale cattle feeding. -
Grain Elevators & Commodity Handlers
Agricultural businesses that purchase, store, and market grain and other commodities, including disputes arising from grain contracts, storage agreements, and commodity price disputes.
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Agricultural Lenders
Banks and lending institutions with agricultural loan portfolios requiring legal counsel for loan documentation, foreclosure proceedings, and the resolution of disputes with agricultural borrowers. -
Agribusiness Companies
Larger agricultural businesses — seed companies, custom harvesting operations, crop consulting firms, and agricultural input suppliers — facing commercial litigation, contract disputes, and regulatory compliance challenges. -
Rural Landowners
Landowners whose property includes both agricultural and non-agricultural uses, particularly those dealing with the intersection of agricultural operations, oil and gas production, and rural residential interests.
An Agriculture Attorney With Deep Panhandle Roots and Dual Expertise
When you hire SJB Law Firm for an agricultural legal matter, your case is handled by partner Kenneth Netardus — an agriculture attorney serving the Texas Panhandle with nearly three decades of experience representing farmers, ranchers, feedlot operators, and agribusinesses in the full range of legal matters this region’s agricultural economy produces. Kenneth earned his law degree from Texas Tech University School of Law in 1994 and has been practicing in Amarillo ever since. He and his wife Hillary have called Amarillo home since 2001, and their daughters are active 4-H members who show livestock — a connection to the agricultural community that goes well beyond the practice of law.
What makes Kenneth’s agricultural law practice genuinely distinctive is the combination of agricultural and oil and gas expertise he brings to every matter. In the Texas Panhandle, these two areas of law are inseparable for many clients — mineral rights severed from surface agricultural land, pipeline easements crossing working farms, royalty income that supplements agricultural cash flow, and surface damage from energy operations affecting crop production and livestock operations. Most attorneys handle one or the other. Kenneth handles both — and the depth of his understanding of how agricultural and energy interests interact in this specific market is a resource that few attorneys anywhere in Texas can match.
Beyond the legal expertise, Kenneth understands the culture of Panhandle agriculture — the importance of a handshake, the multigenerational relationships between farming families and their land, the economic pressures that make legal disputes feel like existential threats rather than business problems, and the community context that shapes how agricultural disputes are best resolved. That understanding affects not just how he practices law but how he counsels clients on when to fight and when to settle, and what the long-term consequences of each path are likely to be in a community as interconnected as this one.
The Texas Panhandle Agricultural Economy — Why Legal Counsel Matters Here
The Texas Panhandle is one of the most agriculturally significant regions in the United States. The Amarillo area sits at the center of the nation’s largest concentration of cattle feedlots — operations that collectively feed millions of cattle per year and represent a multi-billion dollar segment of the American beef supply chain. Deaf Smith County, centered on Hereford, is known as the beef capital of the world and is home to some of the largest cattle feeding operations in North America. The agricultural communities of Dalhart in Hartley County, Canyon in Randall County, Pampa in Gray County, and Tulia in Swisher County each anchor their own agricultural economies built around livestock, grain production, and the services that support them.
Crop production across the Panhandle is as significant as its livestock operations. Irrigated corn, grain sorghum, wheat, and cotton production stretches across Parmer, Castro, Lamb, and Swisher Counties — fields that depend on Ogallala Aquifer water and the infrastructure of a mature agricultural economy. Dryland farming operations in the eastern Panhandle counties produce wheat and other small grains under rain-fed conditions that have supported communities for generations. The intersection of irrigated and dryland agriculture, livestock production, energy development, and water resource management creates a legal landscape that is more complex and more contested than the wide-open spaces of the High Plains might suggest.
The legal needs of this agricultural economy are substantial and ongoing. Lease disputes arise every year as cash rent farmland changes hands and agricultural tenants and landowners disagree about the terms of their arrangements. Water rights conflicts are intensifying as the Ogallala declines and demand for groundwater increases. Cattle purchase and sale disputes are a regular part of the feedlot industry’s legal landscape. And the overlay of oil and gas production on agricultural land across much of the Panhandle creates a continuous stream of surface damage claims, easement negotiations, and royalty disputes that require attorneys who understand both industries. We have been handling these matters for the Panhandle agricultural community for decades.
Agriculture Law Questions — Answered
What are my water rights as a farmer or rancher in the Texas Panhandle?
In Texas, groundwater rights are governed by the rule of capture, which generally allows a landowner to pump groundwater from beneath their property. However, local Groundwater Conservation Districts — including the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District and the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1 — have the authority to regulate pumping through permit requirements, well spacing rules, and production limits. Your specific rights depend on your location, your GCD’s rules, your permitted pumping volumes, and the terms of any water purchase or lease agreements you have entered into. An attorney can help you understand what you are entitled to pump, what your GCD’s rules require, and what options you have if your water access is threatened.
What should I do if there is a dispute over my farm or ranch lease?
Document everything — the terms of the lease, any written or oral agreements about the condition of the land, any improvements made during the lease term, and any communications between the parties about the disputed issues. Do not make verbal agreements with the other party that are not confirmed in writing. Contact an attorney before the lease term ends if at all possible — many lease disputes can be resolved more effectively before they become full-blown litigation. We represent both landowners and agricultural tenants in lease disputes throughout the Texas Panhandle.
Can an oil and gas company operate on my agricultural land without my permission?
It depends on whether the mineral rights underlying your agricultural land have been severed from the surface. If a third party owns the mineral rights — or if an energy company holds a lease from the mineral rights owner — they may have the legal right to access your surface to develop those minerals, even without your consent as the surface owner. However, this right is not unlimited. Texas law requires that mineral rights holders and their lessees use the surface in a reasonable manner and pay compensation for surface damage. A surface use agreement can define the terms of that access and protect your agricultural operation from disruption. Contact us before any energy company begins operations on your land.
What legal protections do I have as a cattle seller or buyer in Texas?
Texas has well-developed law governing livestock purchase and sale transactions, including brand registration requirements, estray cattle procedures, and warranty obligations in cattle sales. The Uniform Commercial Code governs many aspects of cattle purchase contracts. If you have a dispute over a cattle transaction — including disputes about the condition of livestock at delivery, payment defaults, or breach of a cattle feeding agreement — you have legal remedies available. Document the terms of the transaction, the condition of the cattle, and all communications with the other party, and contact an attorney promptly.
How does the intersection of agriculture and oil and gas law affect my operation?
For many Panhandle landowners and agricultural operators, oil and gas activity on or near their property creates a range of legal issues — surface damage from drilling and production operations, pipeline easements that limit agricultural use of portions of the property, groundwater quality concerns from energy operations near irrigation wells, and royalty income that affects agricultural cash flow and tax planning. Managing these intersecting interests requires an attorney with expertise in both agricultural law and oil and gas law. At SJB Law Firm, partner Kenneth Netardus practices both — and the combined expertise he brings to these matters is one of the most distinctive aspects of our agriculture law practice.
Dealing With an Agricultural Legal Matter in the Texas Panhandle?
Whether you are facing a water rights dispute, a lease disagreement, a cattle contract problem, or a question about oil and gas activity on your agricultural land — we are ready to help. Contact Stockard, Johnston, Brown, Netardus & Doyle for a consultation with an agriculture attorney who knows this community, knows the law, and knows what is at stake for the farming and ranching families who have built their lives here.