The years first calf born to the herd of genetically pure Bison I manage on the prairie of SW Minnesota! Mom is extremely agitated and ornary, but you would be too if you had to push 45 pounds of muscle out!
That's cool. My wife is ornery too. My boy was only 6,2 when he came out. Better her than me. ;-) Sent from my iPhone
Alright.... Buffalo veal. You say you manage the herd. How many? What do they do with them/.... buffalo burgers or hunts or just watch them grow? Prairies in Minn? Who would have thunk? OK, so I had to google. Minn. used to have a ton of praire land. Today it's down to a little over 200,000 acres. It used to be nearly a third or more of the state. They're trying to restore over the next 25 years.
David, This herd is fenced on 600 acres of native prairie in a state park. Once the calves are all born the herd will number about 110 and each fall we have an auction in which 30-35 animals are sold. No hunting, no butchering, the bison are a tool to manage native prairie land as it was pre european settlement. Interestingly, most bison herds in the US have a large amount of cattle gentics in them. The huge herd at Custer state park in South Dakota has cattle genetics while the herd at Wind Cave National park is essentially pure strain bison which is why a fence is maintained between the two parks. Most of the pure herds are on federal lands. We try to aquire new bulls avery 4-5 years from a federal herd with different gentics lines than ours to maintain diversity and help preserve the true bison.
I've always been fascinated by Bison, very cool. I wouldn't mind having one myself, but I'd venture to guess thy are quite a bit more ($) than a Beef cow...
Very cool! I spent a summer at the Nature Conservancy's Zapata Ranch. They have a herd of 2500 that runs wild on 100,000 acres. http://www.zranch.org/ Here's a photo of my dad's...
That's very interesting. Do you handle them much or are they pretty much wild? If you do handle them, are they worse than cattle? Meaning are they more docile or more aggressive than cattle?
We handle them very little and although you can approach them and get fairly close, I'd never consider doing that unless I was in a vehicle. In our setting, they are treated and behave very much like a wild animal. We typically never call a vet for anything as nature is allowed to take its course if an animal is sick or injured. Once each year we have a "roundup" and run them through a corral system in which they get sorted and 30-35 get pulled out for auction. I grew up around cattle, and bison are a whole different ball game. They are not happy when seperated from their herd. The smaller corral pens must have solid sides because if they can see out, the head will go down and they will try and go right through the steel corral panels. I'd never consider being in a pen with one as they are just too unpredictable. The hierarchy that exists amongst them is interesting too. There is definitely a social structure and the dominant animals get anything and everything they want and they will pass that social staus on to their offspring. We had the same dominant bull for the last 3 years, and last fall he got hit with pink eye in his left eye and that was the end of his reign, the next bull in line took over and the former boss spent the next month completely isolated and by himself. If he ever tried to approach the herd, the new bull would drive him off even though it was no where near breeding season. Fitz, that is an impressive looking bull!
