The Petersen family raise cattle near Pukwana: Alexa, Jayslee, Coy, Calvin, Leah and Maisy.
According to the Petersen family, the family who works cattle together … can accomplish just about anything together.
“It can sometimes be chaos, but we all love each other in the end,” Leah Petersen explained of working cattle with her husband, Calvin, and four children: daughters, Jayslee, Alexa, Maisy, and son, Coy.
“It’s a bonding experience for sure,” explained 20-year-old Alexa.
“You learn how to do things the right way real quick, because if something goes wrong, you need to fix it right away,” added 17-year-old Maisy.
Their dad, Calvin, agreed, adding, “If you can work cattle with your family and still get along at the end of the day, you can work with anyone.”
It’s a sunny and mild, afternoon in early January. The Petersen family worked a set of steers just this morning before cleaning up to sit down and visit about the cattle operation that has been in their family for three generations. “Grandpa William and Grandma Mary settled here in 1941,” said Calvin, of the ranch that sits on the Crow Creek Reservation, just 13 miles north of Pukwana.
Growing up during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s, Calvin knew times were tough. But when his dad encouraged him to pursue a different career, he was determined to return to the family’s ranch.
“My dad said, ‘get out of here and try something new.’ I was stubborn enough that I ended up back here after college,” Calvin said.
When it comes to raising cattle, the Petersens’ herd is mostly closed. “We raise our own replacements,” Calvin explained. “Someone asked me the other day, ‘the cattle market is good, do you plan to sell.’ I said, ‘no.’ We sell our calves the same time every year regardless of the market and have made it here through good times and bad because we hold steady. We stick to our beliefs and we don’t follow fads.’”
The Petersens raise Simmental-Angus cross cattle. “The cattle we raise need to be able to thrive here,” Calvin explained. “We pick cattle based on the lay of the land.”
The landscape of the Petersen ranch is rolling hills of native prairie grassland. “Our calves and cows get basic mineral and salt program, we try to minimize supplements and let them just do their thing, we don’t put a lot into them,” Leah said. “We are fortunate all our pastures are connected, so when it’s time to move the cows, we just open a gate.”
Unlike Calvin, Leah did not grow up on a ranch, but she did grow up rural. “My best friend grew up on a farm and I rodeoed, so I always was around it,” Leah said.
Leah and Calvin met one summer when Calvin was helping work cattle for a neighbor that Leah was also working for as a nanny.
Leah enjoys raising cattle as much as Calvin. Until 2015 Leah worked in town as a massage therapist and nail technician. But then Calvin’s parents, Ronald and Alona were both diagnosed with cancer.
“I quit work to help take care of them and help Calvin on the homeplace, and I’ve been here full time ever since,” Leah said.
Returning to the ranch full time to work with Calvin means no workday is ever the same. “Everyone pitches in. No one has a specific job. When something needs done, we all help get it done,” Leah explained.
And there are days when it’s just Leah and their children because Calvin also works off the ranch clipping and torching bulls. It’s a side job he’s had since he was 14. “I met a family through 4-H and they asked me if I wanted to help get cattle ready for the Denver National Western Stock Show. I didn’t play sports so after school every day I went over and helped them until long after dark,” Calvin said. “It was an opportunity to meet people and see the world.”
Thirty years later, Calvin continues to clip and torch cattle for several purebred producers who have become much more than friends, he thinks of them like extended family. When it works in his school schedule, his 14-year-old son, Coy, helps out.
“My dad and mom have taught me everything I know. I love working side-by-side with them and being my dad’s right-hand man,” explained Coy, who is building up his own cattle herd, and hopes to return home to ranch with his parents after college. “It is my lifelong dream. I don’t see myself working anywhere else.”
Coy is a 2025 Farmers Union Herd Builder, selected to receive a heifer during the Western Junior Livestock Show. Recently, when he and Calvin were at the Fort Pierre Livestock Salebarn, his dad handed the paddle over to Coy because he is starting to expand his own herd, acquiring new genetics.
“We agreed we liked the look of the heifers and we knew the bulls they were bred to. But when dad handed over the bidder number to me, I was shaking,” Coy said. “It felt good that he thought I was ready for this responsibility and I would not do him wrong.”
Coy’s desire to ranch full time after school does not surprise Calvin and Leah.
“At a certain age we told the kids, ‘do you want to work on the ranch this summer or work in town,’” Leah explained.
When their oldest, Jayslee had the option, at 14 she chose to work for a local nursing home. “She always said she wanted to be a nurse, so we said she should work at the nursing home and see if she liked it. She loved it,” Calvin said.
Now 22, Jayslee recently graduated from Lake Area Technical College with a nursing degree and works for Avera WesKota Hospital in Wessington Springs.
She said working with her family on the ranch prepared her well. “Whether it was working cattle with my family or fixing fence, I learned hard work and dedication for sure,” Jayslee said.
Her sister, Alexa, an accounting major at Southeast Technical College, agreed. “Working on the ranch I learned to help out wherever it was needed,” Alexa said. “And the hard work and dedication transfers to college – focusing, studying and going to class.”
Maisy, who is a senior at Chamberlain High School, and is looking at attending the University of South Dakota in the fall with pursuing a degree in criminal justice also agrees with her sisters in regards to the hard work, dedication and responsibilities all play a role in how they apply themselves in the future.
Leah and Calvin said they enjoy watching their children discover and follow their passions on and off the ranch. They treasure days like this one, when most of their children are home and they can work cattle together.
To learn more about the Petersen family, view photos and videos, visit www.sdfu.org.
