Buffalo Dan's Bison

The National Bison Association winter conference in Denver was great, but having my return delayed several days by heavy snowfall in Virginia sucked.  Last night I was finally able to drive down to the ranch and it feels good to be back.  Everything is wet and muddy down here, which makes work nearly impossible, so I'll probably head back home tomorrow. I mentioned in a previous post that I'd upload some video from the bison auction (above).  There isn't really much to say about it except that it was very well managed by the handlers.  I've seen livestock auctions in which the animals are rushed into the show area being prodded and yelled at with the metal gate slamming behind them.  In such auctions the animals are usually defecating from the stress and often charging at anything that moves.  I saw none of that at the NBA auction.  When a bison is alarmed or upset it will raise its tail in the air, paw at the ground, and round its back.  The bison in the a

Photograph sent to me from my home in Virginia. Just finished participating in the annual National Bison Association winter conference in Denver, Colorado only to find that my flight home has been canceled.  The snow fall in northern Virginia yesterday was significant and I won't be able to return home for two more days.  I recorded some video of the NBA bison auction that I wanted to post, but I'll have to wait till I'm home when I have unlimited bandwidth.   Update:  Well it looks like I may have been able to book a flight that will get me home tomorrow evening.  I say "may have" because I don't trust the airline not to mess things up somehow.  We shall see how this turns out.  

Last winter, when our first ten bison were delivered, the need for a way to monitor the bison 24/7 from any location became very apparent.  This need became further amplified when some of the bison escaped less than a minute after being released into our ranch.  Though they were quickly brought back within the fence, that event had a profound impact on my confidence.  That night and for weeks afterwards I would have nightmares about my bison being able to jump 100 yards in a single bound.  However, though nerve-racking, that experience pushed me to to accelerate the establishment of a monitoring system that has become something I use nearly everyday.  Based on a system I had put together to capture videos inside one of my beehives (see blog this blog post for the final product and here , here , here , here , and here for the full story on its development), the bison monitoring system started out with just one HD camera.  The camera captured an image every 2.5 minutes

"No. 28" grazing with the rest of the herd after recovering from his recent illness.  A few days after the bison bulls were introduced into our ranch I noticed that one of the bull calves wasn't with the group.  After an hour or two searching I found him asleep in one of the forests.  He seemed very out of it and didn't even notice me approaching until I was about thirty feet away.  Once he noticed me he stood up and trotted away.  I followed him at a distance and he continued moving away from me at a good pace and periodically stopping to look back at me.  While I followed, I studied him carefully as he moved.  There were no signs of physical trauma, pain, or neurological issues.  No physical symptoms of any problems.     This continued until he met up with the herd at which point he joined them as if nothing had ever happened.   The following day I noticed that the young bull was again missing from the herd.  I walked to the forest I had searched before and

The 2.5 year-old bull grazing at our ranch. The trip to Texas and back for our three new bison bull was long and exhausting, but we're finally back and have introduced all three bulls.  The following videos and photos chronicle this experience.     The driving time to Texas and back was around 24 hours each way.  During each 24 hour period Jess and I drove continuously in shifts.  With the trailer we obtained a diesel fuel efficiency of 8.2mpg on the way to Texas and 8.5mpg on the way back to Virginia.  The average speed on the highway was 70MPH, which may account for the poor efficiency.  When traveling at lower speeds with the trailer I've been able to obtain greater than 10mpg.  The highlights (if any) in the transportation effort are documented in the above video. We arrived at the ranch January 4th and began preparations for releasing the bison.  Jess checked the electric fences with a voltage meter and I positioned the trailer and opened the outer trailer gat

Wanted to post a short blog entry while returning home. We've picked up all three bulls and are heading back to Virginia now. To keep an eye on them while in transit I've placed a webcam in the trailer, which connects to a laptop in the truck cab via a usb extension cable. With this we can see and hear inside the trailer anytime we want without having to stop.