A ranch worth $44M including its 1,000 head of cattle is being donated to the University of Calgary (U of C) making it the largest property donation in Canadian history. W.A. Ranches Ltd., just northeast of Cochrane, was first incorporated by Wynne Chisholm and her father J.C. (Jack) Anderson in 2005 when Anderson decided to get back into the cattle business. “My dad’s been involved in ranching since he was in high school,” Chisholm said of her father, now 91. “I got to spend my summer holidays, weekends or anytime I was not in school growing up tagging along with my dad to bull test stations, cattle sales, equipment auctions and helping move cattle along by horse.” Jack Anderson had sold out of the ranching business for a number of years but, in the early 2000s, he began looking at putting together a small group of Angus cows. By 2005, the ranch was incorporated and Chisholm along with her husband and son helped with operations. Now those lands – all 19,000 acres – will be the property of the U of C. “We had been doing some succession planning for the ranch and looking at what were we going to in the long term,” Chisholm said, noting her son had pursued another career path. “We wanted to make sure W.A. Ranches could continue operating, that our staff would have ongoing employment and that our ranch would continue to support and encourage the development of youth in agriculture,” Chisholm said. “We started looking at what could we do then, to meet that criteria?” The ranch decided on a donation as it has a long history with the U of C, ever since the faculty of veterinarian medicine was established 12 years ago. The owners had signed a memorandum of understanding with the faculty that would allow university students access to the ranch for hands-on research experiences. Chisholm said they also endowed a professorship in animal care and welfare to the faculty. “Our hope is that the gift will transform the teaching-learning and outreach experiences and empower the faculty to create and share scientific-based discoveries that will improve animal welfare and enhance our industry and the public,” Chisholm said. “The main one is to establish a world-leading centre of excellence for beef cattle research.” Elizabeth Cannon, president of the U of C, said since the opening of the veterinary program at the university, the number of students continues to increase, as has the number of laboratories and training spaces. But the university lacked a field space for training – up until now. “It’s truly transformational when you look at the magnitude of the ranch in terms of its size – 19, 000 acres, 1,000 head of cattle, a value of $44M – it provides an incredible platform not just for the faculty of veterinary medicine but really in collaboration with other researchers across the university,” Cannon said. “It’s giving us the opportunity to add to the training and research capacity that we already have.” Baljit Singh, dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, said the gifted ranch will expand what the faculty has to offer and will provide the opportunity for other researchers at the U of C to study human, animal, and environmental health. “The focus is going to be what they had envisioned the ranch to be – that it’s a platform for the education of the veterinary medical students and graduate students,” Singh said. “a place where faculty members and industry will come together to conduct research and a place where producers will come for gaining of new knowledge and place for community gathering.” As for Chisholm, she said though she’ll miss the day-to-day of the ranch, she’s looking forward to more free time to be with family, friends and to travel. “I quite like cows. I like watching the moms with their calves and seeing them grow. I like seeing whose babysitting for whom in the field and we usually have bulls that come to their favourite girls,” she said. “Pretty much everything I’ll miss.”
