Tyson Fresh Meats Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Cody Easterday, Washington Rancher At Heart Of Alleged Cattle Fraud, Pleads Guilty In Federal Court

By Anna King March 31, 2021

The Easterday family is known for growing potatoes, onions and beef cattle as one of the largest agribusinesses in the Columbia Basin of Washington and Oregon.

Washington rancher Cody Easterday pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal district court to defrauding Tyson Foods Inc. and another unnamed company out of more than $244 million. Easterday admitted charging the companies for the costs of purchasing and feeding hundreds of thousands of fictitious cattle.Read More

Cattlegate: Alleged Massive-Scale Easterday Heist Is The New Brand Of Cattle Rustling

By Anna King March 17, 2021

Modern-day cattle rustling is something that happens mostly on paper, as a white-collar crime, not the literal stealing of cattle by people on horseback in the Old West.

Cattle rustling is as old as the West. And a recent $225 million alleged cattle heist involving Easterday Ranches and Tyson Fresh Meats in Washington is one of the largest cases in U.S. history. And that case, like others nowadays, happened on paper, not on the range.Read More

Short On Cattle, Long On Losses: Easterday Had An Alleged Habit Of Big-Money Trading

By Anna King March 3, 2021

A handwritten piece of paper in a court deposition by a financial officer of Tyson Fresh Meats details Cody Easterday's purported losses on the commodities market over the last decade. Courtesy of Tyson Fresh Meats court filing

The starting point of a Northwest-based saga of alleged invented cattle, a multi-million dollar lawsuit and two bankruptcies may lie in a short handwritten list of numbers scrawled on a lined sheet of three-hole punch paper that purports to show Cody Easterday’s annual losses from speculating on the cattle futures market.Read More

Easterday-Tyson Saga Shows: Counting 200K Cattle Isn’t Easy, Especially When They Might Not Exist

By Anna King February 18, 2021

The Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Wallula, Washington, near Pasco. CREDIT: Anna King/N3

Just how do you miss 200,000 phantom cattle over several years? That’s what some people in the Columbia Basin cattle-feeding industry are wondering in an ongoing saga between Tyson Fresh Meats and Easterday Ranches.Read More

‘Cattlegate’ Moves Forward: What About Those Cows As Easterdays, Tyson Battle Over Herd Of 54,000

By Anna King February 12, 2021

Easterday's "North Lot" is one of the largest concentrated cattle feeding operations in Washington. It was sold Jan. 22 to AB Livestock, a Tyson competitor. Courtesy of Franklin County, Wash.

In southeast Washington, the welfare of more than 50,000 head of cattle is worrying Tyson Fresh Meats. Can the herd continue to be fed and cared for while the company set up to guard over them, Easterday Ranches, files for federal bankruptcy?Read More

Washington ‘Cattlegate’ Continues: Bankruptcy Complicates Creditors’ Claims To Easterday Empire

By Anna King February 8, 2021

Since December, Easterday Ranches in WA has been embroiled in an alleged scandalous cattle rustling scheme. Now, a bankruptcy case calls into question whether a $225M lawsuit will go forward.Read More

Following Lawsuit, Washington’s Easterday Ranches Declares Bankruptcy; Suppliers Line Up For Pay

By Anna King February 2, 2021

Bluegrass straw seen on a ranch in southeastern Washington. Courtesy of Nicole Berg

The case of so-called modern-day cattle rustling in southeastern WA involving 200,000 fake cows and $225M is getting more complex by the day. Now, Easterday Ranches has filed for bankruptcy.Read More

Meatpacking Companies, OSHA Face Investigation Over Coronavirus In Plants

By NPR News February 1, 2021

Workers are shown leaving the Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Logansport, Ind., in May. A House subcommittee is investigating the Trump administration's handling of COVID-19 outbreaks at meatpacking plants, focusing on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as well as major companies Tyson, Smithfield and JBS. CREDIT: Michael Conroy/AP

A U.S. House subcommittee is investigating coronavirus outbreaks at meatpacking plants, citing the deaths of more than 250 employees nationwide and accusing the Trump administration of failing to enforce worker safety laws.Read More

Cattle Wars: Amid Lawsuit, Washington’s Easterday Ranches Sells Feed Property To Tyson Competitor

By Anna King January 28, 2021

As the public media Northwest News Network reported Wednesday, Tyson recently filed a suit against Washington-based Easterday Ranches seeking to get a neutral third party to take over the business until accounts could be settled. It came after Easterday allegedly made up hundreds of thousands of cattle on paper and fictitiously fed them, costing Tyson more than $225 Read More

Paper Rustling: Major Washington Cattle Operator Allegedly ‘Fed’ 200K Cattle That Didn’t Exist

By Anna King January 27, 2021

A major Washington cattle operator allegedly “fed” over 200,000 head of cattle that didn’t exist for years. Now Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc is suing. Tyson says in a lawsuit filed in Franklin County Superior Court this week that its losses are more than $225 million. The losses are from false cattle sales and feed costs. Read More