Father, daughter donate ranch to U of C
Value of donation to veterinary school estimated at $44M
A father and daughter with a passion for the beef industry have donated an entire working ranch — land, buildings, a 1,000head herd of cattle and all — to the University of Calgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine.
In terms of monetary value, W.A. Ranches — which is located northeast of Cochrane and valued at $44 million — is the largest gift of a ranch that has ever been made to a North American university. And, in terms of size, at 19,000 acres it represents the biggest gift of ranch property in Canadian university history.
“This is a transformational donation,” University of Calgary president Elizabeth Cannon said. “This provides a platform which is unique in Canada, if not in North America, and really will propel our faculty of veterinary medicine to the global stage.”
The donation was made by businessman and philanthropist J.C. (Jack) Anderson, age 90, and his daughter Wynne Chisholm, 61. The pair have operated W.A. Ranches since 2005, when Anderson — then 77 — decided to get back into the cattle industry after giving it up decades before to focus on his oil and gas interests.
W.A. Ranches has long had a close relationship with the U of C’s veterinary medicine program, opening up its gates to practicum students seeking first-hand experience with cattle as well as donating $5 million to the university in 2014 to establish the Anderson-Chisholm Chair in Animal Care and Welfare.
Chisholm said she and her father had been talking about a succession plan for the ranch when they decided to donate it, with the hope of giving the U of C a real-life training facility for veterinary students as well as the opportunity to develop a world-class centre for beef cattle teaching and research.
“There are only three grandkids in our family and all have chosen careers outside of agriculture. So we were looking at what our next steps were and what we might do,” Chisholm said. “We just thought it was an area the university was missing.”
The University of Calgary’s vet school, which was founded in 2005, already gives students the chance to work with private ranches and veterinary practices as part of their overall training. But having an entire “turnkey-ready ” working ranch incorporated into the university’s program is very unique, said Dr. Baljit Singh, dean of the faculty of veterinary medicine.
“It will allow us to develop new knowledge, synthesize knowledge and communicate it back to the industry so that the beef cattle industry remains competitive and sustainable over a longer period of time,” Singh said.
In addition to donating all of the assets that go along with W.A. Ranches, the Anderson-Chisholm families requested that each of their five full-time ranch employees be able to keep their jobs under the new university ownership structure.
The family itself will no longer have any direct role in terms of the ranch’s management or operation, but Chisholm said their deep love for the land and the cattle means they aren’t willing to step back entirely.
“It was important to us that we would still be allowed to come onto the ranch, particularly at calving time, and see the animals,” she said. “My dad will probably still want to do a drive-around weekly like he does now, to be able to see what’s happening.”
The U of C will officially take possession of W.A. Ranches in November.