Courtesy of Easterday Farms public Facebook page
Updated Monday, Feb. 8, 2021, 5 p.m. PT
The Easterday family spread unfurls across the Columbia Basin yawning onion farms, massive potato sheds, huge swaths of ground cut into pens for cattle and a fleet of employee vehicles and tractors.
But the Easterday family has other assets: A million-dollar house in Phoenix and a private plane and hangar.
Since December, Easterday Ranches has been embroiled in an alleged scandalous cattle rustling scheme. The charge: Easterday invented 200,000 head of cattle on paper. Major client Tyson Fresh Meats sued, asking for compensation of at least $225 million for the ghost herd. Days before the lawsuit was filed, the Easterdays sold one of their key properties a cattle feedlot called the “North Lot” in Franklin County to a competitor of Tyson for $16 million.
Tyson Audit From the Fence Post Your Trusted Source for Ag News & Information, on Dec. 21, 2020, Tyson Foods announced that an internal audit discovered one of their cattle suppliers made misrepresentations about the number of cattle purchased on behalf of the company. Tyson paid the supplier for cattle that they believed had been purchased; however, they never received those cattle. Investigations performed with the help of outside advisers revealed that the misappropriation of company funds caused Tyson to overstate their live cattle inventory by an estimated $285 million as of their 2020 fiscal year ended Oct. 3, 2020.
Tyson has not disclosed the name of the cattle supplier, however anonymous sources told Tri-State Livestock News that the supplier was Easterday Farms located near Pasco, Wash. According to Tyson’s recently filed 8-K form, this supplier represents roughly 2 percent of the total cattle supplied to Tyson’s beef segment for fiscal 2017 through 2020.
Tyson Supplier Paid for Undelivered Cattle
Thursday Jan 14th, 2021 Tyson Foods has announced that an internal audit discovered one of their cattle suppliers made misrepresentations about the number of cattle purchased on behalf of the company. Tyson paid the supplier for cattle that they believed had been purchased; however, they never received those cattle. Investigations performed with the help of outside advisers revealed that the misappropriation of company funds caused Tyson to overstate their live cattle inventory by an estimated $285 million as of their 2020 fiscal year ended Oct. 3, 2020.
Tyson has not disclosed the name of the cattle supplier, however anonymous sources told Tri-State Livestock News that the supplier was Easterday Farms located near Pasco, Wash. According to Tyson’s recently filed 8-K form, this supplier represents roughly 2 percent of the total cattle supplied to Tyson’s beef segment for fiscal 2017 through 2020.
On December 21, 2020, Tyson Foods announced that an internal audit discovered one of their cattle suppliers made misrepresentations about the number of cattle purchased on behalf of the company. Tyson paid the supplier for.