How the Dutton Family Makes Their Money—and Why They Lost the Ranch Anyway
From cattle farming to finance, here's how the Duttons built their fortune and still lost the ranch
Key Takeaways
- The Duttons make their money primarily by selling, breeding and slaughtering cattle.
- At the end of Season 5, the Duttons sold their ranch to the Reservation for $1.25 acre.
- The ranch sale set up both 'Marshals' and 'Dutton Ranch,' the two major 'Yellowstone' spinoffs.
If you’ve watched Yellowstone, then you probably know that the Dutton family lives a pretty luxurious life. Not only do they have nice cars and a private plane, but they also have a private chef, very expensive clothes and a ranch that they claim is the biggest in all of Montana. But how exactly can they afford all of that? Below, we break down how the Dutton family makes their money and reveal how even with all the extra cash lying around they still couldn’t seem to save the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch at the end of Season 5.
How do the Dutton’s make their money?
The Duttons make their money by simply owning a cattle farm. Sure, Beth (Kelly Reilly) works in finance off and on throughout the show and Jamie (Wes Bentley) does become the Montana Attorney General, but the main way they keep themselves afloat is by selling, breeding and slaughtering cattle. Currently the average income for ranch owners in Montana is approximately $79,116 per year, however some ranchers can make over $222,000 if their ranch is big enough. And since the Duttons have the biggest ranch in the state, it’s safe to say that they make at least $222,000, if not more.
With that income comes a lot of cost, though. Not only do ranchers have to pay for their supplies, equipment, clothes, gear and cattle, but they also have to pay for the property tax on the ranch. Plus, if they don’t own the land they are ranching, mortgages, rent and leases can also cost them a pretty penny.
The Duttons do own their land, since it was found by James (Tim McGraw) and his daughter Elsa Dutton (Isabel May) in the hit prequel show 1883. It was then expanded upon and maintained by Jacob (Harrison Ford) and Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) in 1923 and will most likely continue to be expanded in the highly anticipated show 1944. All of that recently led John Dutton III (Kevin Costner) and his family to where they started in Yellowstone, which showcased them owning, operating and profiting from the land their ancestors settled down in.
“I think the demands are not really as daunting as they look,” Ford told People magazine in regards to working on the ranch. “Maybe from a contemporary point of view, the horses represent something—some special skill or danger—but they really are not. I spent half an hour on a horse, and from a contemporary point of view, you look at that, and say, ‘Whoa, people used to do that,’ but it really is not that difficult.”
How did the Duttons lose their ranch?
At the end of Yellowstone Season 5, it was revealed that the Duttons couldn’t afford the property tax on their ranch. To protect the land—and keep it from becoming overrun with tourists—they decided to sell it to the Broken Rock Indian Reservation for $1.25 per acre, which averages out to be about $1.1 million.
This sale also serves as the jumping off point for two of the shows spinoffs: Marshals, which follows Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) as he continues to live in Montana, and Dutton Ranch, which focuses on Beth and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) after they decide to leave Montana behind and go ranch in Texas instead.
Currently, only Marshals is available to stream, but Dutton Ranch does release on Friday, May 15 and fans cannot wait to see what antics Beth and Rip get into in the Lone Star state.
“It was a shame [Yellowstone] ended that way, but it did,” Reilly told The Times earlier this year. “[Dutton Ranch] is a different era—I had hit my quota of the younger Beth…[In Dutton Ranch] I played with her trying to give it up, but it was too on the nose. I loved her smoking, and we don’t want to suddenly sanitize her with therapy or good behavior… I am trying to find a bit more maturity.”
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