Agistment is a a form of bailment contract.An agreement between an animal owner (the bailor) and another person, usually a landowner, for the pasturing of the animal.

"An agistment," wrote Justice Reavis of the Court of Appeals of Texas in the 1997 case of Hoye v LIke, "is a bailment whereby the bailee takes animals to pasture on land owned or controlled by the bailee. "

Similarly, in United States v. Henderson, Justice Norcross' judgment included these words on point:

"Agistment is the pasturing of cattle or similar animals (e.g. sheep or horses) as a bailee in consideration of an agreed price to be paid by the owner (the bailor). Delivery of animals pursuant to a contract of agistment constitutes a bailment of the animals."

The law of agistment comes with its own glossary:

• Agist means ":To take to graze her pastor at a certain sum."¹
• Agister or Agistor : the person who takes control of the animals, the bailee.

Citations:

• Hoye v. Like, 958 SW 2d 234 (1997)
• United States v. Henderson, 29 F. Supp. 1006 (1939, Nevada)
• NOTE 1: Bank of Tehama Co. v. Federal Realty Co., 2 Cal. 2d 333 (1935)