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.