WOLFF RANCH

“This is one of the oldest ranches in the country,” says Shane Wolff, as he sits on his home’s front porch overlooking his beautiful land in Golden Valley, North Dakota. The Wolff’s ranch recently celebrated 101 years of operation. Shane Wolff is a third-generation cattle rancher whose love of the land is a continuous thread from the early 1900s to now in 2023. The Wolff family takes pride in their family’s long history of hard work in this part of the world.

Shane’s grandfather, Henry Wolff, was born December 18, 1895 in southern Russia to a family of farmers. In April of 1911, when Henry was only 15, he and his family, which included his two siblings, moved to America where they settled in Mercer County, near Golden Valley, ND. Henry worked as a hired hand for about six years before being drafted into the United States Army. After serving, Henry was discharged, and he returned to Mercer County where he began helping on his father’s farm. In November of 1920, he married Amalia Flemmer, and the couple settled on a farm eight miles southwest of Golden Valley, North Dakota.

The newly married couple lived on this farm for about two and a half years before buying land in 1922 that was previously owned by the Walker family. The Walker family had been the family in charge of running the post office known as the Broncho Flats Post Office which operated from 1904-1912. Broncho was a point of contact for all the homesteaders in the area and was the grounds for church services, Fourth of July celebrations, and a few other buildings, including a halter shop, the stone remains of which are on the Wolff’s land and have been preserved.

Henry and Amalia’s first home on the land burned down in 1933, and a new one was built shortly after. Henry’s only son, Armon, began taking over operations of the ranch at the age of 18, buying three sections of land. He married his wife Peggy in 1955 and together they ran the family ranch for around 60 years before Shane and Scott, their two sons, took over the majority of the ranching by the early 2010’s. Armon and Peggy lived in the 1933 home until 1981 when they moved into a newly built one. Their son Scott moved into the old home, first built by Henry and Amalia, where he continues to reside.

Together, Scott and Shane run the ranch as partners, taking care of the same land Henry and Amalia bought 101 years ago. “It’s a 50/50 deal with my brother Scott,” Shane explains. “Has been since we were kids. We’re called Wolff Brothers. He has half the land and I have half the land. His half will go to his son JD, and my half will go to my girls.” The two brothers are dedicated to excellence, and have proven they are willing to make sacrifices and hard choices when necessary to preserve the high standard that is their family’s legacy, which they have now come to expect of themselves.

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Shane and Scott’s higher expectations means every decision they make in their work is intentional, even if it’s not the easiest or trendiest. Even when it is difficult, the brothers never give up, like the generations before them. One of the major areas this plays out for them is the quality of cattle they purchase. Scott explains, “That’s where most of your profit is. Just knowing your business and knowing how to breed those cattle and buy excellent bulls. We’ve always done that. It’s a matter of opinion, but some people say we can’t afford to buy bulls like that, but I always tell my girls, you can’t afford not to. Because a poor cow eats just as much as a good cow and if you’re going to be doing this, you might as well be on top of the game and try hard.” And try hard is right. While the life the Wolff brothers and their families lead is a good one, it’s also a hard one. “Everyone says it’s a really good life. It is, but there’s a lot of hardships, too,” says Shane. “A lot of ups and downs financially and storms and you wonder why are we doing this. But pretty soon the grass gets greener, and you forget all about that.”

The land does not just have historical or sentimental value to the Wolffs but is the very difference between their success or failure as ranchers. “If you’re going to be a rancher, you need to be a steward to the land. If you’re good to that land, it’ll be good back to you. To me, I don’t think there’s anything more important,” Scott states. The Wolff’s land is a reflection of the high-quality work they put in, as the land has clearly been cared for and well-respected. Shane, Scott, and his family put countless hours into caring for the land and their cattle. “You put a lot of miles on. You’re always running and going, running and going, fixing fences and hauling cattle,” Shane describes. All that hard work pays off in the end for the Wolffs. “We have damn good cattle. In the fall, they’re fat and sassy, but a lot of that is due to really good grazing. They’re never shorted… this little area right in here has some of the better Angus cattle in the state almost. That’s what the cattle buyers have told us,” says Scott.

The Wolff’s success did not come overnight as Shane’s personal stories attest. When Shane was first dating his wife Marsha, they didn’t have much besides the land where they lived. “When Marsha and I were dating, we liked this spot. When we got married, we put a little house on the prairie here… At first we didn’t even have a dollar,” describes Shane. “We just kind of got by. Had three little kids, and they kept us broker which is great, but then we got into a double wide in ’97. We just liked the spot and stayed here.” Recently, in 2020, Shane and Marsha were able to move into their current home, which was built on the exact same spot by Redford Signature Homes. “Marsha did all the planning,” says Shane. “She planned it foot by foot, changed a few things, did this and that, then Greg [owner of Redford Signature Homes] kind of fine-tuned it, and it turned out fantastic.” The home is a place of peace for the two of them and any of their guests fortunate enough to visit. When they have a moment of downtime in the evenings, Shane and Marsha love to sit on their backyard patio under a wooden beam in the shape of a ‘W,’ a testament to their family’s legacy.

As the stories of Shane and Scott, their families, and the previous generations all attest to, nothing in this life comes easy, but takes consistency and patience, and cattle ranching is no different. “It takes a long time,” says Scott. “It’s different than a job. Each day you get a little better at it, and you make a lot of mistakes, and after you get a few years on like we have now, then you can be a mentor to your kids… You really have to like the life to stay with it that long.” As Shane reminisces on what this life means to him, he returns to gratitude time after time, saying, “We’re just glad to have what we have.” unique: being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.

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