A Montana cattleman and his wife are giving away their $21.6 million ranch instead of selling it, a rare move as land prices climb and multigenerational ranches disappear across the West.<\/p>\n
Dale and Janet Veseth, whose family has ranched in northwestern Montana\u2019s Phillips County for generations, are donating their roughly 38,000-acre spread to the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, a rancher-founded nonprofit that works to keep land in cattle production.<\/p>\n
The couple will continue to manage the ranch for the rest of their lives, with ownership transferring to the group later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dale and Janet Veseth said they chose donation over sale to keep their ranch intact and in agricultural use for future generations. Ranchers Stewardship Alliance<\/p>\n
The organization says it is the largest recorded donation<\/a> of a working ranch in Montana history.<\/p>\n For Dale Veseth, 63, the decision reflects the financial reality facing modern ranchers.<\/p>\n His family\u2019s ties to the land run deep. His father ran cattle there. So did his grandfather.<\/p>\n Veseth has spent 35 years refining a rotational grazing system on the property, including using remote-controlled collars to move cattle up to 170 times a year across the ranch.<\/p>\n But rising land prices and outside buyers<\/a> have reshaped the high northern plains, making it harder for family ranches to survive.<\/p>\n The ranch has supported multiple families over the decades, but today only three remain working the land, according to Dale Veseth. Ranchers Stewardship Alliance<\/p>\n \u201cFor people to go out and pay $20 million to have an average job, that probably isn\u2019t going to work,\u201d Veseth told Cowboy State Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cLand is just one aspect. You have cattle. You have equipment, you have labor,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd (everything) to make all these things go. We thought it was pretty hard to recruit the next generation of people who produced our food.\u201d<\/p>\n The ranch\u2019s footprint reflects decades of consolidation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Veseth has spent more than three decades refining rotational grazing practices across the property. Ranchers Stewardship Alliance<\/p>\n Veseth has said at least 76 homesteads are now incorporated into his deeded acres.\u00a0<\/p>\n Including Bureau of Land Management grazing lands, he estimated roughly 100 families once worked the land that today supports just three.<\/p>\n \u201cThey all had dreams and interests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n