Butch Jensen, Owner and Operator along with his wife Jeanie of the well-known Tavaputs Ranch and T.N. Ranching Company, was recently awarded the 2024 Distinguished Cattleman of the Year award. This award is considered to be the most prestigious award to be given out by the Utah Cattlemen’s Association.
“It is given to those cattlemen who have made significant contributions to the cattle industry, served on local and state boards, have been active in the association, and served on the UCA board. This award has typically been given to past presidents of the association, but there are a few who have not served as president that still received the award. Butch is one of those that has made many contributions to the industry and has been actively involved both locally and in the state,” stated Jacob Schmidt with the Utah Cattlemen’s Association.
Jensen’s daughter Jennie Christensen had the honor of being the one to present the award to her father. Christensen expressed that even with all of the local, state and national awards her father has received over the years, “his proudest moments are spent with his family, now representing the seventh generation of ranchers working on Utah’s isolated Tavaputs Plateau.”
Jensen and his wife grew up riding stick horses together as their families owned neighboring properties. The two married in 1978 and decided to join the two-family properties together, giving them 10,000 acres of calf-cow run property and 200,000 acres of combined Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and state rangeland.
Over the years, Jensen’s daughter and her husband, Jeff Christensen, have helped run and operate the Tavaputs Ranch, oftentimes hosting visitors from around the world to bird watch, hike and hunt.
In 2009 the Jensen’s were awarded the Leopold Conservation Award and the National Cattlemen Environmental Stewardship Award in 2010. Fellow ranchers and cattlemen have expressed that there is no better recipient than Butch Jensen for such a prestigious award.
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- Photo Courtesy of Tavaputs Ranch
