Body of Billionaire Cattle Rancher Found, Cattle Okay

ABF Newswire: November 7, 2025

Third attempt at a watercolor of a grazing pasture I pass by frequently. Picture taken in late summer. This version is pen and ink with watercolor where I went way too heavy on the watercolor and it ended up muted, muddy mess of greens.

Image Credit: My Id and Ego.

Too heavy. Muddy. Forgot to go light when there's line work. But, hey, less afraid of using color. It's progress, right? Sure, I didn't plan an area of focus. Also, my colors a still splotchy and don't seem integrated, like I tried a paint-by-numbers and couldn't stay within the lines or something. It's neat. Progress is neat. I enjoyed it. And that's enough.

WYOMING. November 7, 2025 (ABF Newswire) Local billionaire found dead on his ranch by cattle hand Jesus Gutierrez. "I thought it was a large piece of driftwood I never noticed before," recounts Gutierrez, "turns out it was a body. I checked on the cattle and they're fine."

The billionaire, who made his fortune in pork, was scorned in the local media after the city council approved his plan to extend the grazing range of his hundred head of prized cattle into a popular local open space that runs adjacent to part of his property. The expansion would have privatized the land removed it from public use. While the existence of the cattle were a vanity project for the deceased, those who used the open space trails enjoyed seeing them. "God bless those beautiful creatures," said Martha Spruce, the billionaire's neighbor. As the town's longtime choir pianist, she enjoys singing silly songs about the cattle as she warms up before each church performance.

The coroner concluded the man died by multiple bullet wounds from both pistol and rifle calibers. Police closed the case as a death by stray bullets.

Second attempt at a watercolor of a grazing pasture I pass by frequently. Picture taken in late summer.

Image Credit: My Id & Ego.

See, immediately trying another version and I produce a better result. Is it amazing? No. Do I like it better than the previous version? Definitely. Good on me. Keep it up. And don't rush. Relax. Take my time. But I'm impatient. Yup.

The plans to extend the ranch into the open space have been couched. "We'll sure miss his donations to our council," the city's mayor said, "and I'm glad the cows are okay."

The deceased had quietly accumulated controlling stakes in nearly a dozen regional pork processing plants over the past decade, each acquisition routed through a different holding company to avoid triggering federal antitrust review. With that foothold secured, he undercut independent hog farmers on contract prices until they sold or went under, then bought their land too. By controlling both the farms and the processing plants, he could set the price pork left the facility at, which meant he effectively set the price it hit grocery shelves at. A pound of bacon in three surrounding states cost 40% more than the national average. The Federal Trade Commission had opened a preliminary inquiry twice. Both times it was quietly closed after the deceased's lobbying firm hired two former FTC staffers.

First attempt at a watercolor of a grazing pasture I pass by frequently. Picture taken in late summer.

Image Credit: My Id & Ego.

I've been excited to paint a watercolor of this grazing pasture I regularly pass and then I paint it and expectations met reality. So the dabbed leaves and crude everything isn't what I envisioned. Be cool with that. This is fun. Not producing amazing works of art is still supposed to be (somewhat) fun. Frustrating.