Northeastern California Hunting & Fishing

Five Dot Ranch Hunting & Fishing

The Ranch

Five Dot Ranch Hunting & Fishing is a program of Five Dot Land and Cattle Co. – a Northeastern California cattle ranch that has been in the Swickard family since 1852, when the family sailed from New Orleans and homesteaded in the Santa Clara Valley. In 1959, Jack Swickard moved the cattle operation north to Susanville and founded Five Dot Land and Cattle Company in Lassen County. Today the ranch is carried on by the seventh generation of the same family.

Wooden ranch entrance gate reading Five Dot Ranch at dusk, with mountains in the background

A Working California Ranch

Five Dot’s ranching operations take place across six Northern California counties – Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Napa, Solano, and Contra Costa – grazing cattle on owned and leased pastures and rangelands from the Napa Valley to the High Sierra. In addition to cattle, Five Dot runs a summer haying operation, growing and baling grass, alfalfa, and triticale for winter feed.

Cattle grazing in a pasture with snow-capped mountains and ranch buildings in the background

The ranch practices holistic land management, grazing cattle in a way intended to work with the surrounding landscape rather than against it – helping to mitigate impact on sensitive species and to support the region’s watersheds.

Wildlife on Five Dot Land

The ranch is home to a wide range of species sharing the property, including Bald Eagle, Pronghorn Antelope, Canadian Geese, Osprey, Mule Deer, Great Grey Owl, and Rainbow Trout, among others.

Mule deer buck standing in a snowy forest clearing
Bald eagle in flight
Osprey in flight against a grey sky
Wooden ranch entrance gate reading FIVE DOT RANCH at dusk, with mountains in the background
The Five Dot Ranch entrance gate at dusk, with split-rail fencing and mountains rising in the distance.
A field of purple lupine wildflowers with a reservoir and forested hills in the background
Purple lupine wildflowers bloom in a meadow near the reservoir, with forested hills rising beyond the water.
A dramatic evening sky over a ranch pasture and split-rail fence
Enjoying the summer evenings as long as we can before the mosquitos come out and force us back inside.
Cattle grazing on a green hillside with a rancher walking among them
Cattle graze across a misty hillside on one of Five Dot's grazing properties, with rolling oak woodland in the distance.
The Five Dot Ranch wooden entrance gate covered in snow, with cattle grazing in a snowy pasture nearby
The Five Dot Ranch entrance gate dusted in snow, with cattle grazing in the pasture just beyond.
Four riders on horseback moving across a field at sunset
Four riders on horsback at sunset
Historical sepia-toned photo of a man plowing a field with an early tractor
John Harvey Swickard – 1917
A frosty sunrise over a ranch pasture with golden light breaking through the clouds
It was a cold, frosty morning here on the ranch today! Sunrise breaks through the clouds over a frost-covered pasture.
Cattle grazing in a pasture silhouetted by golden hour light with mountains in the background
Golden hour on the ranch, as cattle graze in the warm evening light.
A rancher looking out over green rolling hills with cattle grazing in the distance
Our family has been rooted in California since 1852 – that's all we know, and although it's becoming increasingly harder, it's the only place we can imagine being right now.
Cattle grazing in a pasture with snow-capped mountains and ranch buildings in the background
Doing our part to leave this land better than how we found it, today and every day! Happy Earth Day, friends!
A vivid orange and pink sunset over a ranch pasture with a split-rail fence
Wrapping up Labor Day Weekend here on the ranch with a beautiful sunset!
Two riders on horseback moving a herd of cows and calves across a pasture near a pine treeline
Spent the morning moving a herd of cows and calves at the main ranch.
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