MT Couple Donates Epic Ranch in a Move Straight Out of ‘Yellowstone’
A Montana cattle rancher and his wife have made the remarkable decision to donate their $21.6 million ranch in a gesture that evokes the climactic ending of the TV drama series on the run. Yellowstone.
The Veseth Cattle Co. Ranch has been a family operation for generations. Deeding the 38,000 acres to the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA), a nonprofit organization, will ensure the land remains a working cattle ranch.
By turning over the southern Phillips County cattle ranch to RSA, Dale and Janet Veseth will continue to manage the operation during their lifetime, but ownership will pass to the nonprofit organization.
This donation is believed to be the largest recorded donation from a working ranch in Montana history.
The RSA was founded by ranchers to preserve the state’s ranching identity and prevent land from being parceled out and sold to other interests.
“At 63, he has been fine-tuning his rotational grazing system for 35 years, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him as a Western cattle operation,” the Cowboy State Daily reported of Veseth.
The Veseth Ranch received the Environmental Stewardship Award in 2008 from the Montana Stockgrowers Association and was featured in a short documentary:
The main story of the critically acclaimed series Yellow stone follows the fictional Dutton Ranch – also set in Montana – as developers attempt to drive the Duttons into bankruptcy and turn their jaw-dropping expansion into unsightly commercial real estate.
In the contemporary western’s final episodes, the family defeats the developers by ceding their land to a local Indian tribe that has the legal authority, under treaty rights, to preserve it.
Although it could be said that the gift of the Veseths is an art imitating life, the opposite is actually true, according to the modern economic pressures that would be placed on the ranchers of a state often referred to as “Big Sky Country.”
“For Dale, 63, the decision reflects both harsh economic realities and a deeply personal awareness of what ranching has become in the modern West,” said the Every day Post reported.
“Competing interests now compete for ranches in Montana’s northern High Plains – a landscape once defined by homesteads, today increasingly shaped by conservation groups, investors and soaring land prices,” the report said. Mail coverage continued.
“The capitalization required to start and maintain a ranching business was out of reach for most Americans,” Veseth told Cowboy State Daily.
He continued: “Land is just one aspect. You have livestock. You have equipment, you have labor. And (everything) to make all those things work. We thought it was quite difficult to recruit the next generation of people who were producing our food.”
The average age of breeders is now 60, and full-time breeders under 35 represent only 12% of this farming population, according to Western digital media.
The Veseths see their gift as creating ranching opportunities for the next generation, with their land remaining in the hands of those who wish to exploit it.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the bestselling author of Below the line and nine other mystery novels and non-fiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com to find out more.
