Hunters, Washington, rancher Dave Dashiell addresses a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife meeting Oct. 7, 2014 in Colville, Washington. The state confirmed up to 32 wolf depredations on Dashiell's flock; an estimated 200 to 300 animals were likely lost.

Members of the Washington ranching community remember cattle and sheep rancher Dave Dashiell as a “powerhouse” in the industry.

David Arthur “Dave” Dashiell died June 9 at his home in Hunters, Washington, due to complications from a hip replacement surgery. He was 66.

Dashiell made headlines in 2014 when he lost 300 sheep to the Huckleberry wolf pack.

The state confirmed 27 to 32 depredations on his flock, but agreed with Dashiell’s loss estimate.

The value of the lost sheep was about $100,000. He was compensated less than $50,000, wife Julie Dashiell told the Capital Press.

“Dave was one of the first commercial operations that was actually put out of business by the wolf,” said Scott Nielsen, Stevens County Cattlemen’s Association president, a Cattle Producers of Washington board member and a past president.

He called Dashiell an “icon” of the Cattle Producers of Washington, or CPOW, as a past president.

“Dave was a powerhouse in the cattle industry,” rancher Len McIrvin said. “We’d fight a certain amount of political pressure on a lot of these issues. Dave was always a tower of strength in trying to preserve our livelihood, our way of life, our constitutional rights as far as the cattlemen grazing cattle, as far as trying to protect our herds from the predators. He was just a good hand.”

Industry leaderDashiell served in several leadership roles, including as president of CPOW and active in R-CALF and Stevens County Cattlemen’s Association.

CPOW withdrew from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s advisory group in 2015, calling it “inept and pointless.” Dashiell also left the advisory group that year.

Nielsen joined the advisory group in January, after being approached by several people asking him to share the rancher’s perspective. Dashiell was the first person he consulted before deciding to apply. Dashiell said he would support Nielsen’s decision.

“Dave said, ‘Well, Scott, we seem to be going nowhere with the department,’” Nielsen recalled.

“He wanted a voice for people that were actually raising cattle, the boots-on-the-ground type people,” Julie Dashiell said of her husband. “He always felt we weren’t getting paid as much as we should for our livestock … He just wanted everybody to profit in the cow business, he wanted to see people succeed.”

Josslinn Schoesler, his daughter and the current president of CPOW, agreed.

“Whether you were just starting out with a handful of cows or you were the biggest rancher in the state, it didn’t matter to him, he could talk to anybody,” she said. “He had that smile that just said, ‘Let’s talk, I’ve got stories to tell.’ He knew what good cattle were, good horses were, good dogs were, and he wanted to share that with people. If you had the right critter for the right environment, you could make a living.”

McIrvin was Dashiell’s 4-H leader from 1965 to 1970.

“He was always an outstanding young man,” McIrvin said. “He was raised in the back country of Stevens County like a lot of us were. He excelled in what he did.”

When McIrvin consolidated land for wintering cattle in the early 1990s, he recommended to landowners the Dashiells as “people I would feel real comfortable taking over all of our former leases.”

“I had a lot of confidence in Dave and Julie, and they never let me down on that confidence I had in them,” McIrvin said.

Good animals, good dispositions

”He was a good guy and he worked hard,” Julie Dashiell said. “He had a path that he was going down, and nobody was going to change his path. He had a vision of what he wanted. Just a couple of years ago, he said, ‘I think we’ve maybe got it just the way we want it.’”

The Dashiells wanted to raise “good, functional” cattle and sheep that were profitable and fit their operation, Julie said.

”We concentrated on good cows, good dispositions,” she said. “We moved around so much, those cows had to be able to handle being behind a hot wire, getting on and off a truck.”

They attended holistic range management classes, keeping in mind that their lambs “would end up in somebody’s freezer on the market somewhere,” and some of their wool was fine enough to go into military contracts, she said.

‘Voice for the real-world cowboy’“He was a voice for the real-world cowboy,” brother Don Dashiell said. “That’s all he wanted to do, was make a living off the land … He was dedicated to his home place, his business, his family and his work.”

Dashiell was a man of few words, but his “legacy will be long,” said Sarah Smith, regional specialist in animal sciences for Washington State University Extension in Grant County.

“His wisdom and knowledge was vast,” she said. “When he spoke, it had meaning, impact and value.”

The Dashiells understood the marketing and genetics aspect of raising livestock, and worked to mentor young people through the industry, Smith said.

“They were traditional, but they were modern – they were willing to look at new opportunities,” she said.

Joy in seven-day work weeks

According to the family’s obituary, Dashiell “found joy in seven-day work weeks.”

”Going out, getting on his horse and riding, that was probably his favorite thing to do — riding through his cows, checking a fence, water, a gate or a salt, that was him,” Julie Dashiell said.

Schoesler fondly remembered her father singing to her and her sister when they were little, sometimes for hours, while trailing cattle back home.

”We learned some pretty good salty cowboy songs,” she said.

”He was always up for the next fight — whatever it took to keep the industry prosperous,” Schoesler continued. “He would say, ‘If the government would just let us do our jobs, less red tape, we could feed the world.’”

The family will hold a memorial service July 28, Dashiell’s birthday.

”We would prefer you come in your pickup and stock trailer, if you can,” Julie Dashiell said.

Memorial contributions may be given to CPOW at P.O. Box 47, Ritzville, Washington, 99169.

The family is having a bench built in Dashiell’s memory. They ask everyone with a branding iron to bring it to brand the bench, Julie Dashiell said.

https://www.danekasfuneralchapel.com/obituary/david-dashiell