Tokach Angus Ranch in North Dakota: History, What It Raises, How It Makes Money and How to Contact It
Profile updated November 2026
Tokach Angus Ranch is a fourth-generation registered Angus seedstock operation near St. Anthony, North Dakota, on land the family homesteaded in the late 1890s. Its proof of standing is long and public: an annual production sale that has run since 1975 and reached its 50th edition in 2025, a 2015 Certified Angus Beef Seedstock Commitment to Excellence award, and a 2020 Top Hand Award for Richard Tokach, the highest honor of the North Dakota Stockmen's Association.
| Location | St. Anthony, Morton County area, North Dakota |
|---|---|
| Founded | Land homesteaded in 1897 or 1898 (sources differ); registered Angus since 1955 |
| Sectors | Registered Angus seedstock; spring yearling bulls; commercial and purebred heifers |
| Scale | Operation spread over about 70 miles; herd size and acreage not published in the sources reviewed |
| Why it is elite | 50 consecutive annual production sales; 2015 CAB Seedstock Commitment to Excellence; 2020 NDSA Top Hand Award to Richard Tokach |
| Ownership | Family-owned; fourth generation on the ranch, with a fifth generation expected |
| Official website | Tokach Angus Ranch official site |
History of Tokach Angus Ranch
The Tokach story starts with a homestead east of St. Anthony. Richard Tokach's great-grandfather, Stephan Tokach, filed on the land in the late 1890s (the Angus Association podcast says 1897 and the Stockmen's Association says 1898). Grandfather Matt bought the homestead in 1939, so the ranch has been continuously in family hands for well over a century.
The seedstock business began in 1955, when Richard's parents, Dick and Theresa, bought the family's first registered Angus heifer. The Tokachs say the current herd traces back to that single purchase from Oak Coulee Ranch. Twenty years later, in 1975, the family held its first production sale at Kist Livestock Auction in Mandan. Richard and Kathy Tokach still hold the sale there every year on the third Monday in February, and the 2025 event was the 50th. Their son Ben and his wife, Natalie, now work in the operation, and Ben handles much of the cow herd and marketing.
What Tokach Angus Ranch Grows and Raises
Tokach Angus Ranch is a spring-calving registered Angus program that sells spring yearling bulls and a group of commercial and purebred heifers each year. The operation is spread across roughly 70 miles of rolling North Dakota grass country, and the family calls the St. Anthony area the Angus mecca of the state.
Sale cattle are shown in person at Kist Livestock Auction before sale day, and offering videos are posted on DVAuction for buyers who cannot travel. The family describes the ranch as in an expansion phase. Richard and Kathy have also given years to industry service on American Angus Association and state boards, and Kathy has served as president of the North Dakota Angus Association.
How Tokach Angus Ranch Makes Money
Annual bull sale
The core revenue stream is the February production sale. Registered Angus bulls are sold to commercial cow-calf producers who need dependable calving ease, growth and structure for North Dakota winters.
Replacement heifers
The sale also offers a group of commercial and purebred heifers, which gives buyers a way to add genetics through females as well as bulls. Selling both sexes widens the customer base beyond bull buyers alone.
Online and video marketing
Bulls are also marketed through DVAuction videos, extending reach beyond the Mandan sale crowd. A well-known sale date, a consistent venue and digital viewing make the sale easy for repeat customers to plan around.
Farm Insight: What Other Operators Can Learn from Tokach Angus Ranch
The first lesson is consistency. Holding the same sale at the same venue on the same Monday for 50 years builds a repeat-buyer base that no single campaign can replace.
The second is that seedstock is built on a long breeding line and reputation: one registered heifer bought in 1955 still anchors the herd, and association service keeps the family visible. The third is succession: bringing the next generation into the cow herd and marketing early keeps the program moving.
Few ranch families can say they have held the same bull sale on the third Monday of February for half a century, in Mandan, in North Dakota, in the month when the wind chill has opinions about everything. For readers who like their farm.FM reading with a side of farm satire, farm humor, ranch humor and farm jokes, the Tokach calendar is a gift: even the calves are probably scheduled. We say it with admiration, because a sale that never misses its date is the real marvel on the prairie.
If the name is new to you, farm.FM is the nation's first satirical farm site, with Tractor Tunes country music for farmers on the side. One of its regular writers keeps a whole archive of stories like that.
How to Contact Tokach Angus Ranch
Website: https://www.tokachangusranch.com
Listed as the ranch website on the North Dakota Angus Association directory, November 2026. Sale catalogs say Richard and Ben Tokach welcome calls about the offering and that cattle can be viewed at Kist Livestock Auction in Mandan before the sale; confirm details with the ranch before traveling.
Tokach Angus Ranch Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- Tokach Angus Ranch official site - The ranch's own website, as listed by the North Dakota Angus Association
- North Dakota Stockmen's Association: Top Hand Award - Producer association announcement of the 2020 award and ranch history
- American Angus Association: The Angus Conversation - Podcast page on the Tokach family, the 2025 sale and the CAB award
- North Dakota Angus Association - State breed association directory of Angus ranches and officers
- USDA NASS 2022 Census of Agriculture: North Dakota - State-level farm numbers, land in farms and sales
Tokach Angus Ranch FAQ
Where is Tokach Angus Ranch?
The ranch is based at St. Anthony, North Dakota, in the Mandan area, and its operation is spread over about 70 miles.
When is the Tokach Angus Ranch bull sale?
The family holds its production sale annually on the third Monday in February at Kist Livestock Auction in Mandan. The 2025 sale was the 50th and the 2026 sale was the 51st.
How long has the Tokach family ranched there?
The land was homesteaded in the late 1890s and has stayed in the family since. The Angus seedstock program began in 1955, and the fourth generation is running it today.
What awards has the ranch received?
The ranch won a 2015 Certified Angus Beef Seedstock Commitment to Excellence award, and Richard Tokach received the North Dakota Stockmen's Association Top Hand Award in 2020.
Tokach Angus Ranch shows how a North Dakota family can turn a homestead and a single registered heifer into a fifty-sale seedstock program. To compare it with other operations, soils, programs and markets across the state, read the North Dakota farms guide linked on this site.