“We were Yellowstone before Yellowstone was a TV show,” says Steven McBee Jr., “That’s what we’ve been doing our entire lives.”
Comprised of brothers Steven Jr., Jesse, Cole, Brayden, and their dad Steve McBee Sr., the McBee family owns McBee Farm and Cattle in Missouri and currently stars on the reality show McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys, which follows the lives of their ranching family.
The farm has been in operation since 1998, with the whole family living on the same land, which encompasses 40,000 acres for row crops and 2,000 heads of cattle across approximately 750 different fields.
The family of cattle ranchers were strangers to reality TV until Steven McBee Jr. was cast on the reality dating show Joe Millionaire, which aired in 2022 on FOX. During the time of filming, people had encouraged him to watch the show Yellowstone. When he saw the similarities between the fictional show and his family’s real-life experience, he knew he had a story to share.
“We do have a very interesting story to tell with our farming operation and I thought, ‘If I can get production companies from L.A. to see who we are, what we do on the farm every day, I think it’d be interesting for America to know what happens in rural America,” says Steven Jr. “So, I ended up on that dating show, we were able to bring the top six women out to the farm for hometown visits and we’re having the production company seeing the farming operation, seeing the dynamics within our family. We honestly had a bidding war between not only the production company side but also the network company side over who was going to pick up the show.”
Through their show, the McBees’ mission is to depict to viewers what the life of farmers and ranchers is really like. “It’s not just a job, it’s a lifestyle,” says Cole. “There [are] just a lot of people that I don’t think realize the time and effort that goes into farming…It’s not an easy job. It’s a mental game the whole time. You put in a lot of hours that can just get wiped out because it didn’t rain, or it rained too much…We love it. You have to love it to do it. It’s just how we’ve always been raised.”
While the show also follows their personal lives, romantic relationships, and family drama, the McBees aim to highlight the back-breaking work that farmers and ranchers do every day and give them the recognition they deserve.
“We want to make sure those men and women that truly rely on farming and ranching for their sole income are recognized and put into the spotlight…” explains Steve Jr. “This is the backbone of America; this is how America was born and raised, and we want to make sure that industry never goes away…If there was one thing that makes it tough about television is for every hundred hours of footage there only ends up being one hour on actual airtime. So, every time you see 30 seconds of Cole on a tractor, you don’t realize he’s been planting for 12 hours that day...We work seven days a week and we work together as a family…We wake up every single day not knowing what the day’s going to bring but knowing there’s going to be a battle coming from somewhere and without family at the center of it all there’s no way we’d be able to run any of these businesses let alone all of them combined. So, the family, that’s the big push that we wanted to convey [to TV audiences], that and the authenticity of the actual show itself.”
In addition to operating their ranch, the McBees also own an express carwash chain, Apex Protein Snacks, and the McBee Meat Company, an online consumer meat brand that ships nationwide.
“It’s all just to help supplement the farm income,” explains Steve Jr. “Farming is dealing with Mother Nature which is obviously the toughest variable of them all because it's uncontrollable, so we opened up and diversified all of our businesses to try and supplement the bad years at the farm.”
When they can get away from the farm, the McBees love heading to Music City for a much-needed break. “Nashville’s our stress release,” says Steven Jr.
“[It’s} kind of our outlet to get away,” says Steve Sr. as he describes their contemporary and stylishly decorated Nashville home as “180 [degrees] from our day-to-day life on the farm and ranch…”
“And we fit in pretty well down here with the cowboy hats,” Jesse chimes in.
When they’re in Nashville, Steve Sr. is all about day drinking downtown and checking out the up-and-coming artists. “I like the rooftops,” says Cole. “We don’t get much rooftop bar action [in Missouri] …where I’m from I don’t see any other buildings around me or other houses…so it’s cool being up here seeing all [of] the city and everything.”
It’s not just the vibe of the city’s downtown that they find exciting, they also enjoy the little things that most Nashvillians take for granted. “We are amazed at DoorDash and Uber Eats whenever we come down here…” shares Steven Jr. “We don’t get that back home. It’s 45 minutes to the best grocery store where we’re at.”
The guys are big fans of Country music and have developed friendships with artists including Dustin Lynch, Dylan Scott, Jon Langston, and Riley Green. “We had a television show for hunting up at our farm back in 2016 through 2018 and those guys would come up there and hunt with us, so we’re very involved in the country music scene,” shares Steven Jr.
While the show highlights the ups and downs of ranch life, at the center of it all is the strong family bond the McBees share.
“Working with family may come with its challenges and unique set of problems but at the end of the day there’s no one else I’d rather be working with,” says Steven Jr.
The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys can be streamed on Peacock.