Entire working ranch, with 1,000 head of cattle, donated to Calgary's vet school

A father and daughter with a passion for the beef industry have donated an entire working ranch — land, buildings, a 1,000-head 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 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 nearly 7,700 hectares, it represents the biggest gift of ranch property in Canadian university history.The donation was made by businessman and philanthropist J.C. (Jack) Anderson, 90, and his daughter Wynne Chisholm, 61. The two 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. “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.