Buffalo Dan's Bison

One man's quest to ranch American bison in Virginia.

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Mapping hay deployments

on November 11, 2024

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Front-end loader mounted t-post installer

Since we started fencing the perimeter of our ranch in 2014, I've strove to increase the rate at which I am able to fence an area. Among the most recent improvements has been a t-post pusher which is mounted to our tractor's front-end loader bucket. This device is very simple, but has already saved us countless hours of work. The following photographs illustrate how I use the post pusher. Aiming: The loader is first positioned with the end of the pusher is close to the ground. I then maneuver the tractor until the end of the pusher is in alignment with the marked post location. This is how the lined up pusher looks from the driver's seat of the tractor. Yes, I know the loader has an issue with the hydraulics cover. Loading: Once the pusher is aligned, I place the tractor in park, raise the loader arm and insert a t-post into the open end of the pusher. Tilting: Correct placement of the t-post is dependent aligning the post along three axises,

DIY cultipacker-roller

For those of you who are unfamiliar with agricultural equipment, a cultipacker is an implement used to compress soil. There are several reasons a farmer may use a cultipacker, but, for me, the primary purpose for the cultipacker is to pack down soil that has just been planted with grass seed. This should greatly improve seed germination in newly planted bison pasture. Five truck tire rims welded together form the shape of the cultipacker. Technically this is really more of a cultipacker-roller hybrid as the ridged portions on the roller should be more closely spaced on a true cultipacker. A thick piece of steel tube runs through the center of the rims, which I'll explain later in this post. For added weight each tire rim was filled with concrete after it was welded in place. A photograph of the roller portion of the cultipacker completed and waiting for the concrete to cure. The length of steel tube that runs through the center of the roller is welded to the

Mapping hay deployments

As I mentioned in a previous post, I work with GIS (digital maps) professionally. As a result, I have used GIS technology to map just about anything I can think of on the ranch. I've precisely mapped every fence line, post, gate, waterline, road, stream, water tank, shipping container, and corral panel on the ranch. This comes in very useful when I want to get an exact measurement of a gate, the number and type of fence posts in a given area, the size of a pasture, or where I buried a water line. I have not only recorded were something is, but often when it happened. If mowed an area, for instance, I'll record the area I mowed and when I mowed it. The above map shows some areas I've mowed recently. That comes in very useful later when I examine the location for the quality of the grow back. Doing this systematically can help me pinpoint the best times to mow a specific area in the future. One thing that I have recorded for several years is w

Somebody drove a bulldozer on my ranch

I was inspecting the southern part of my ranch when I came across a spot in the woods that had been bulldozed probably a month ago. The driver had entered my property from a new road he had created in the land adjoining my ranch (see below) and cleared several channels through the underbrush. Needless to say I was stunned. I looked up the land owner and asked if he was aware that someone had driven a bulldozer on his property and then crossed over into my property and cleared some underbrush. He replied that it was him and he hadn't realized he had crossed on to my ranch because the county GIS parcel map on the Internet showed the boundary differently. I went online and and checked the Nottoway County GIS map and, sure enough, the parcel data on there was unbelievably inaccurate. For the vast majority of people who haven't heard of GIS, GIS stands for Geographic Information System. In a nutshell GIS is digital maps and the technology used to ma

Restoring Native Plants

This summer I had loggers come out to the farm to clear about 20 acres of loblolly pines. Now that the land is cleared I intend to restore the native ecosystem. Based upon the native species I have idenified on my farm and in the immediate vicinity, I believe this was a piedmont oak savanna. The primary grasses included indian grass, purple top, little bluestem, big bluestem, split beard bluestem, and broom sedge. Legumes include partridge pea and round-head bush clover. Flowers are many, but I am particularly interested in the Maryland Golden aster and milkweed. As a part of this restoration effort I have collected as many of these seeds as I've been able to and planted them in a quarter acre section of the 20 acres I wish to restore. This quarter acre will be fenced off from the bison and allowed to grow up and serve as the seed source for the eventual restoration of the remaining 19.75 acres. Gathering the seeds has been a consuming task to the point that I dream I am doi