New bison ranchers needed

Lisa I don't know for sure, I haven't looked it up. But, I suspect it is because a lot of, maybe even most, ranched buffalo are infected with Brucellosis.

It's nasty stuff that's transmissible to humans, possibly through rare meat, But I imagine you already know that. I'm just guessing.

My neighbor has kept them for over thirty years with a regular five strand barb wire fence. They can be pretty intimidating behind said fence from time to time though. They have escaped a few times...about like any other cow I guess.

I highly doubt it.
Ours were always Bangs vaxxed, just like cattle. The last I heard, Turner did the same thing.

WILD buffalo are the ones that are often infected with brucellosis. The Yellowstone herd being the glaring example.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

That would be the Buffalo Commons project.

The only real fly in the ointment of that original suggestion is the few million of us who live in the proposed area really don't want to have to move.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Yes...As far as I've heard or read...it's mostly the Yellowstone herd. Domestic buffalo is usually fine.

That must be a hairy experience, vaxxing Bison! I have a hard enough time with my family milk cow!

__________________
Idleness is leisure gone to seed

The handling equipment is specially built for buffalo.
The head catch is a bit different since a buffalo's widest part is at their shoulders. They hit the crash gate and then the head catch is closed on them.
And the tub and alley was completely surrounded by catwalks so you never got too close to them!

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

The Yellowstone herd was being infected from the elk. I am not sure that many were actually infected. I believe they were just monitoring them close as a couple did.

Why do some stay in and some don't? Handling, Handling, Handling. We have a small buffalo ranch just out outside of town. I have never seen any of them out. However, they are exposed to humans and equipment every day and come from lines that have been on the place for generations.

The buffalo from Dances with Wolves were all handled and had come from handled parents. My best friend worked on the ranch were the buffalo lived and were all the buffalo shots were filmed. The old rancher was standing just off camera in the back of a pick up yelling "oreos" and shacking a couple of big bags of oreos. That was how they were trained to "stampede" and stop on cue. :smiley-laughing013:

If you ever get a chance to cook a buffalo roast, put it in a roaster on low with big slices of onions on it with a bit of water in the bottom. Come back in 24 hrs and you will have the most tender, juicy, yummy roast you have ever had! The trick is "low and slow", just like most wild game.

As to the shortage of eating buffalo, each calf is mothered for two years. I have heard of some ranchers trying to pull calves off like cattle but they were having a hard time getting the females to cycle more than every two years. Most buffalo kept in large pastures do need to have what boils down to telephone poles with steel cables run. All it really does is keep the honest ones in! Those buggars can jump quite high and do run fast, turn on a dime, and tend to run thru whatever they want.

Carrie in SD

__________________
Life is too short not to enjoy it!
Smile, it makes everyone wonder what you are up too!! :baby04:
Gravity and I tend to see eye to floor

There is a farm close to here, but the meat is so expensive, we've only had it once or twice.

__________________
http://mmsmiracle.com/EnjoyBetterHealth

Bison meat is very popular in Alberta and British Columbia and there are several bison ranchers raising them now. I only get bison meat now, never eat beef anymore. It has so much better flavour to it and less fat than beef.

There are also some ranches are raising hybrid bison that are a cross between the much larger Canadian Wood bison and the American Plains bison.

Up at One Hundred Mile House, BC, on the high plateau there's a ranch where they've been breeding bison for 40 years or so and downsizing them. Those dwarfed bison they're producing now are about 2/3rds to 1/2 the size of fully grown American Plains bison, they are much more docile and easier to handle and confine. They are really quite cute but I still wouldn't want to wander around with them.

.

I'll be catering an event next week at the Buffalo Ranch.... The menu will include Buffalo Roast. There was also a special request for Buffalo Tamales,as appetizers. They sale Buffalo thru their country store.

I drove really slow, and took a long time, down the drive, on my way in last night....really taking them in.
Yep, beautiful, majestic.......and SCARY!!

I'm done with considering them for my place.....We may look at Longhorns.... and I'll buy any Buffalo meat I need... from them..... and stick to just cooking it!!

__________________
"We are the people, our parents warned us about." - Jimmy Buffett

It's delicious. And appears to be leaner than regular beef- even the grass-fed beef. But since the price around here has jumped to over $10 per pound we've haven't had any lately. Can't see it being a viable homestead animal either...

How they're infected is irrelevant. My point was simply that it's not the "domestic" herds since they tend to be Bangs vaxxed.

So far as handling making a tamer animal... I have no doubt there are people who fully believe that.
Gert's husband did, for that matter. He had a small herd that he handled on a fairly regular basis. Right up until one killed him, that is.



Buffalo are still wild.
They are not just big, hairy cattle.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Yep, that is very true. But that is also true of any animal - domestic or otherwise. I am sure most people on here know of at least one person who has been injured or killed by a "tame" animal.

I was only speaking of why some buffalo seem to spook more easily than others and why some are less likely to go thru a fence than others.

Carrie in SD

__________________
Life is too short not to enjoy it!
Smile, it makes everyone wonder what you are up too!! :baby04:
Gravity and I tend to see eye to floor

The one neighbor that lives out by in In-Laws raised Buffalo.

They would be open on the weekend and people could stop and buy buffalo meat or they would grill a burger for you and you ate it there.

He used HEAVY DUTY fencing all around the place and when we talked to them, he said he NEVER EVER walks in with them. The only time he went in with the buffalo was on a Heavy Duty large tractor.

I think he just got out of them in the last year or two. He orginally started to raise them to help out with his daughter's college education. I don't know how much of a profit he actually made with them.

Cow bulls are dangerous enough and we've had numerous farmers killed by bulls. I can't even imagine the temperament of an older bull buffalo!!!!!!!

__________________
Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania

"Everything happens for a reason."

Oh, I got ya.

No, buffalo don't go through fences because they spook. They go through fences because they WANT to.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop