Anna King/NW News Network
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Nearly 12,000 acres of Easterday family farmland in Benton County will likely sell for more than its $210 million asking price, according to court documents and sources with knowledge of the deal.
Two big players are vying for the sweeping property near the Columbia River: Farmland Reserve’s AgriNorthwest, which is backed by the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates’ Cottonwood Ag Management.
The highest bidder will be confirmed at a bankruptcy auction held next week.
The deal is subject to the federal court’s sale hearing on July 14.
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And that case, like others nowadays, happened on paper, not on the range.
Chad Parker, based in California, runs the Western States Livestock Rule Enforcement Association, a national industry group that fights cattle rustling. He says he will never forget a classic case of cattle theft he couldn’t solve.
The udders of several mother cows on a Red Bluff, Texas ranch were engorged with milk, because their calves had been stolen.
Parker was on the case.
“We put up cameras, we surveilled the corrals at night, we put out bait cattle,” Parker says.
He even put radio frequency trackers under the skin of the bait cows.
2020 - $34 million loss
“In the classic theory of gambling addiction there is a winning phase and losing phase and a desperation phase,” says Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. He says those listed losses follow a pattern that he’s seen many times. Whyte says he’s not trying to diagnose someone he’s never met.
“.but when you see that classic pattern of wins, and then losses and then desperation, which often leads to extreme losses, that fits a classical pattern of someone who does have a gambling problem,” Whyte says.
Montana State professor Belasco says in his class, students buy and sell commodities like cattle to experience how the market works firsthand. Belasco is surprised at the list of losses attributed to Easterday, saying his students have a better trading track record.
Courtesy of Franklin County, Washington
Just how do you miss 200,000 phantom cattle over several years? That’s what some people in the Columbia Basin cattle-feeding industry are wondering in an ongoing saga between Tyson Fresh Meats and Easterday Ranches.
“It’s hard to believe,” says Mike DeTray, who runs a 4,000-head operation outside of George, Wash.
An accurate count of cattle is essential to cracking the case of Easterday Ranches and Easterday Farms two arms of the large Easterday family empire, which Tyson Fresh Meats has accused of inventing and feeding 200,000 cattle on paper. After Tyson filed suit seeking $225 million, Easterday filed for federal bankruptcy.
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