Washington Cattlemen Fundraise for South Dakota Ranching Family

Last’s fall devastating South Dakota Blizzard decimated many, many ranching families. The Ranchers’ Relief Fund has already distributed nearly $775,0000 to impacted livestock producers and has another $3.3 million to disburse.

Central Washington’s Kittitas County Cattlemen decided that they wanted to help ranchers in need as President Sam Kayser explains.

Kayser: “We just felt we wanted to help somebody in particular. We just didn’t want to send it to a fund — though we knew it would be distributed well.”

Through some Kittitas valley connections, the group found a young South Dakota family that had lost 300 of their 350 calves several days before they were to ship them as well as 400 momma cows.

The group began by donating $2,000 from their own bank account — but many in the group wanted to do more. So at the annual county cattlemen’s banquet, they did a raise the paddle fundraiser.

Kayser: “At the end of the night, we had raised $20,000.”

Kayser has also told the family’s stories at neighboring county cattlemen’s annual meetings and says he is expecting them to all come in with additional funds.

When I spoke to him last week they had raised a total of $28,000 for the family that had lost more than a million dollars in equity due to the blizzard.