For the past 50 years, the Joe C. King & Sons Ranch has operated with the belief that their corner of central Montana is best left as native range where cattle, wildlife and landscape act in a mutually beneficial and sustainable system.

Unfortunately, there is no magic recipe that will guarantee the preservation of your family relationships and the perpetuation of the dairy. There are, however, five key ingredients that if not planned for will almost assuredly lead to blackened heartache, tasteless family dynamics and burned chances of the dairy succeeding generationally.

“I always wanted to be a farmer,” says Brice Mosekian of BnB Farms in Cambridge. “I didn’t want to do it in California.”

Summer weekends mean rodeos for Idaho’s urban and rural dwellers alike. As two- and four-legged athletes test their skills in a sandy arena, there’s a lot going on behind the chutes. And that’s just where the Pinz family likes to be.