Our ranch is home to a small herd of registered Plains bison. The breeding herd is made up of 25 females and 2 bulls, Brutus and Tiberius. The herd is extensively managed, meaning that they are left to their own devices most of time with me making sure they are receiving proper nutrition, good water and are in good health. The following will give you an idea on how our bison herd is managed throughout the year.

Spring

Spring is calving time for the bison and my favorite time of year.  The arrival of the calves is an indication that everything is working and the herd is doing well. 

Bison are referred to as ‘seasonal breeders' meaning that they are reproductively active for a specific time of year. As a result calves are born in a short time period in the spring. Calves on the ranch are born starting in late April with most being born in the first two weeks of May.  Although it is not fully understood how this process is regulated in bison, their breeding season lasts from late July to the end of October. However, when cows are in good health they will conceive in their first cycle in July/August. Seasonal breeding is Nature's way of ensuring that calves arrive when the spring grass is here and there is adequate nutrition for the cows during lactation.

Summer on the Ranch

During the summer months the bison are left to do what they do best, eat and sleep with the occasional romp around the pasture. I enjoy watching the calves grow and develop and am always entertained by their antics. It's a quiet time of the year and management is focused on maintaining healthy grass land. This is done by rotational grazing and not letting the bison overgraze any one pasture. The goal is to maintain a healthy grass plant. A healthy plant leads to healthy soil which leads to a good water cycle.

Fall on the Ranch

Fall is much like summer but an eye needs to be kept on the grass and bison are restricted to certain areas to give the grass other areas the rest it needs. The calves have turned color from an orange brown as a new born to a brownish black. The bulls' attention turns towards breeding and they are left alone as they do not tolerate too many interruptions in the natural way of things.

Winter on the Ranch

Winter is the busy time for the ranch, believe it or not.  Because of the seasonality of bison the harvesting of the animals is also a seasonal process.  Harvesting begins in late fall or early winter with the bison being transported to a provincially inspected facility in central Alberta.  In order to minimize the stress on the bison, only a few are shipped at a time and harvesting is done about once a month until spring. 

February is also the time of the yearly round-up.  This is when all the calves are tagged with a CCIA approved ear tags and weaned from their mothers. All females are run through for a just a general close up check to make sure they are in good health and replace any ear tags that may have been lost during the previous year.  The bulls get to by-pass the handling as they are seperated out of herd just prior to going through the facility.  It makes everyone's life a little easier when they are taken out of the process early on.  They are joined again by the cows once they have gone through.  We have found February to be the best time for the yearly round-up as the cows have already mostly weaned the calves themselves and therefore it is not as stressful on the calves when done at this time of year.  We have a tame bison on the ranch named 'Buffy' who then takes over as baby sitter and keeps an eye on the young ones during this time.  She helps calm them down and shows them how to get the pail of oats out of my hands as quickly as possible.

"Buffy"

'Buffy' was an orphan bison calf whom I discovered one morning in my pasture.  I noticed this little calf running around looking for a mother and no one seemed to claim her.  That she was motherless was further confirmed by the fact that I did not have a bison cow running me down when I finally caught her and carried her out of the pasture.  Mother nature knows best and for whatever reason she was abandoned by the cow that gave birth to her.  The most plausible explanation is that she was a twin and the mother knew she could not feed them both without putting her own life at risk.  For a bison cow her own survival is her first priority, then comes that of her offspring.

Now that I had 'Buffy' in my arms I had adopted her and was responsible for her upbringing.  It was an interesting summer having her at the house and bottle feeding her all summer and fall. But by the time she was 10 months old she was allowed to rejoin the herd and learn the way of the bison.  Although she is tame she is not a 'house pet' and has to find her way in the herd just like the rest.  However, having her around as a 'baby sitter' has made weaning a little less stressful for the calves.  She is now three years old.