One man's quest to ranch American bison in Virginia.
The big Texas bison trip
Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
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 gates. In order to have maximum observation of the bison during their introduction Jess and I maintained separate observation points and used walkie-talkies to coordinate our actions.
When all was ready I pulled a rope attached to the first inner trailer gate causing the gate to swing open and release the two bison bull calves. The calves soon exited to trailer and after a minute or two spotted our bison herd an began to walk towards it.
At first the herd was a little frightened of the two new bison and started to run away.
However, upon closer examination, the two scary creatures turned out to be new bison and everyone gathered around to check them out.
I now pulled the rope connected to the second inner trailer gate and the 2.5 year-old bull emerged from the trailer. His demeanor was a little more menacing and I retreated to the other side of the trailer after taking this photo.
The previously all-female bison herd (left) quickly spotted our handsome hero (right) and began to walk towards him leaving the two bull calves (far left) behind.
The following video is a series of segments showing the initial meeting and subsequent interactions between the bull and heifers.
I'm no bison expert and can only speculate on what's happening in this video. The females appear to be quite excited about the older bulls arrival. At one point, which I wasn't able to capture on video, one of the females began stotting on the periphery of the group. They flocked around him and appeared to attempt to touch his mouth with their mouths (several instances were observed that are not in the video).
Initially the older bull appeared to be receptive to the behavior, but, after awhile, their persistent attention appeared to wear on him and he eventually took leave of the herd and entered a densely forested part of the fenced-in area.
The two bull calves had a different experience. At first they too seemed a bit overwhelmed by the herd, but, once the older bull was released, the herd eased off and the too younger bulls seemed less overwhelmed. Their primary interactions with the females was head butting, which, while strenuous, appeared harmless. After the older bull retreated to the forest, the younger bulls seemed to split their time between hanging out with him and grazing with the females.
The older bull being followed by the herd, while one of the younger bulls spars with a female in the background.
Today I spotted the older bull grazing in the pasture with one of the younger bulls. He appear much more relaxed and even spent time resting in the sunlight at the top of a hill. Things seem to have settled down now.
Beautiful ranch! I am raising champion quality breeding stock in Texas when your need arises. My bull, Doctore, is 1 1/2 years old and almost 1500 pounds. My preg heifers are large animals and bred to Big Easy. These will all be massive animals, but they're a year away from being ready. Keep posting pictures, they're great! Best wishes Steve
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,
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
Face flies beginning to appear a few days after my initial treatment with AiM-L VetCaps. I unfortunately don't have any photos of the original mob of flies, which was much worse. Since the forth of July an insect called the face fly ( Musca autumnalis ) has plagued our ranch and caused me a considerable amount of stress. It was a week ago, on the forth, while doing a routine check on the herd, that I noticed that the bison appeared to be greatly agitated by a surprisingly high number of the flies. While the sight of flies or other small insects buzzing around grazing animals is nothing unusual, this was something different. The flies flocked in groups around the eyes and nose of each animal so incessantly that the bisons' natural defenses appeared to be ineffective. All the blinking, ear flapping, tail wagging, snorting, rolling in soil, and rubbing on trees had little effect. No matter how many times they did these things the flies would just briefly fly up into the
Beautiful ranch! I am raising champion quality breeding stock in Texas when your need arises. My bull, Doctore, is 1 1/2 years old and almost 1500 pounds. My preg heifers are large animals and bred to Big Easy. These will all be massive animals, but they're a year away from being ready. Keep posting pictures, they're great!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Steve