Rupert Murdoch takes on ranching

Jan 04, 2022

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch buys cattle ranch in Montana in the largest such deal in the state’s history.

From media mogul to farmer, billionaire continues his climb upwards.
In the largest ranch deal in Montana history. Rupert Murdoch, 90, and his wife, Jerry, purchased a 340,000 acre ranch in southwest Montana, near Yellowstone National Park.

The deal—which happened this past December—is for the property known as Beaverhead Ranch, and was purchased from Matador Cattle Co., a subsidiary of Koch Industries for about US$200-million (~CDN$255-million).

Koch Industries was founded by Fred Koch, who founded the crude-oil-gathering business that grew into Koch Industries. He purchased the ranch about seven decades previous.

Murdoch—owner of HarperCollins, the Wall Street Journal, and hundreds of other well-known media enterprises—said he had been looking for a ranch property for over a year.

He added that he was “privileged to assume ownership of this beautiful land” and that along with anticipating spending time at the ranch, will enhance the commercial cattle business and its conservation assets.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.