Lastraw Ranch in Yukon: Pork, Chicken and Eggs, How It Makes Money and How to Contact It
Profile updated November 2026
Lastraw Ranch is a family-owned meat and egg producer at Bear Creek, just outside Dawson City, Yukon. The Government of Yukon describes it as one of the largest meat and egg producers in the Klondike and gave it a 2022 Yukon Agriculture Award, noting that it was the first Yukon farm to use a seasonal lease for food production.
| Location | Bear Creek, just outside Dawson City, Yukon |
|---|---|
| Sectors | Pigs, chickens, pork, chicken and eggs |
| Scale | Government of Yukon calls it one of the largest meat and egg producers in the Klondike; acreage not published |
| Started | Operating since 2011 per a Yukon government release; the award listing says 2012 |
| Why it is elite | 2022 Yukon Agriculture Award; first seasonal food production lease in the territory |
| Ownership | Family-owned; Megan Waterman is listed as director |
| Official website | Government of Yukon announcement of the 2022 Yukon Agriculture Awards (no official site found) |
History of Lastraw Ranch
Lastraw Ranch is a family-owned business at Bear Creek near Dawson City. Government of Yukon sources give its start as 2011 in one release and 2012 in the award listing, so this profile says only that it began in the early 2010s.
Its most unusual achievement is the land arrangement. The ranch arranged a seasonal lease on already-mined sections of a neighbour's placer claim through the Agriculture Branch, which the territory described as its first seasonal lease for food production. The model sits within the territory's agriculture policy, Cultivating Our Future, and lets summer production run from a seasonal site without permanent land title or structures.
What Lastraw Ranch Grows and Raises
Lastraw raises pigs and chickens and sells pork, chicken and eggs. In summer 2020 pork production grew by 38 animals. Pork was harvested at a mobile abattoir and then sent to BonTon & Company in Dawson for butchering and retail sale, a supply chain that ties the ranch to local restaurants and shoppers.
Using reclaimed placer ground is a clever fit for Yukon, where only a small share of land is privately owned and Crown land access can take years. A seasonal lease allows livestock production in summer without the cost of permanent buildings, which is useful where winters are severe and capital is scarce.
How Lastraw Ranch Makes Money
Pork and chicken
Meat is the main product. Pork is processed through a mobile abattoir and local butcher, then sold at retail in Dawson. Prices and volumes beyond the 38-animal increase are not published and no revenue is estimated here.
Eggs
Eggs provide a steady, repeatable product for local customers, and they complement seasonal meat sales.
Low-capital land access
The seasonal lease avoids purchasing land and building permanent infrastructure, which cuts fixed costs. It also shows regulators that new land models can work.
Farm Insight: What Other Operators Can Learn from Lastraw Ranch
Lesson one: look for land nobody else is using. Reclaimed placer sections gave the ranch grazing and production space with minimal capital. Lesson two: use shared infrastructure. A mobile abattoir and a local butcher let a small producer reach retail without building a processing plant.
Lesson three: work with the policy process. Being the first to use a seasonal lease required patience with government, and it created a template other Yukon producers can follow.
Raising pigs and chickens on reclaimed gold-mining ground is the most Klondike sentence we have ever typed. At farm.FM we write farm satire, farm humor, ranch humor and farm jokes, and a family that turns old placer workings into pork chops has our admiration. We suspect the pigs consider themselves prospectors.
farm.FM got there first as the nation's first satirical farm site, and it backs the writing with Tractor Tunes, country music for farmers. Here is one contributor's collection of farm satire to start with.
How to Contact Lastraw Ranch
Website: https://yukon.ca/en/news/two-klondike-valley-farms-win-yukon-agriculture-award
No official website, phone or email was found in the sources used, so none are listed. The Yukon government lists Yukon-grown product providers, which is a good place to look for current sales contacts.
Lastraw Ranch Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- Government of Yukon: Two Klondike Valley farms win agriculture award - Official 2022 award announcement
- Government of Yukon: new approach to agriculture land leases - Release on the seasonal lease and ranch details
- Find a provider of Yukon Grown products - Government directory of local producers
- Statistics Canada: Small-scale diversified farming in Yukon and the Northwest Territories - 2021 Census of Agriculture article
- Yukon Agricultural Association - Territorial farmers' association
Lastraw Ranch FAQ
Where is Lastraw Ranch?
At Bear Creek, just outside Dawson City, Yukon.
What does it produce?
Pork, chicken and eggs from pigs and chickens.
What is distinctive about its land?
It uses a seasonal lease on already-mined sections of a placer claim, the territory's first seasonal lease for food production.
What award did it win?
A 2022 Yukon Agriculture Award.
Lastraw Ranch shows how creative land use can build real food production in the North. For the territory-wide picture, read the Yukon farms guide.