Buffalo Dan's Bison

Information about the past and current weather conditions is incredibly useful for ranching.  If I have a record of wind gusts, I can know the likelihood that a tree has fallen on the bison fence.  If I know the depth to which the ground has frozen in winter, I can get an idea of the likelihood that my buried water distribution system has frozen.  If I have a record of past rainfall, I can more easily calculate when I'll need to start supplementing hay.  If I know the temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiance, I can calculate an indicator for cattle heat stress.  You get the idea. This post is the first of a series of posts describing my installation and development of a weather station on our bison ranch.  The weather station will be an extension of the Raspberry Pi-based solar-powered surveillance system I've already built on the ranch.  The best post to review for a description of that system can be found here .  This system continuously monitors the bison he

It's been a while since I've added a post to this blog and, for those who follow the blog, I apologize.  Blogging can become a drag if you do it over a prolonged period and I needed a break.  I feel ready to continue posting now.  Here is a brief overview of our current situation: - We still have bison - They are doing well - We're still learning a lot about bison - We've had a lot of rain this year and learned to deal with the impacts of that issue (insects and lush grass) - I'm close to being finished with this years corral modifications.  Jess and I are comfortable with our current herd size until we are able to fully develop our business model.  We see no point in accelerating the pace of our business until we have all the information we need to know how things will turn out.  Right now we are still learning, building infrastructure, and growing our network. 

Female bison No. 6 sailing towards me last week in a still image captured on my body cam. Recently on more than one occasion bison No. 6 has let me know in no uncertain terms that she doesn't like me. Her main method of communicating this disdain has been to charge me at a full gallop.    No. 6 charging me a few months ago.  While this specific behavior from No. 6 is a recent development, I have noticed a greater amount of shyness in the past during emergency face fly permethrin treatments .  These treatments, which are normally joyous occasions for the rest of the herd, are so distasteful for No. 6 that she will not partake.  It seems as though she doesn't like the jostling and chaos that ensues during these treatments. In my interactions with the bison I am very cautious and never approach the herd without at least one avenue for escape, which is probably why I'm alive today.  I have heard of instances in which people have bottle-raised individual bison and bee

This post gives a basic description of the method and materials I use to run modified McMaster fecal egg counts on samples collected from my bison herd.  A description of why people run these test and how I collect the samples can be found in my previous blog post .  Most of the items I use to run my modified McMaster egg counts.  Not pictured are the samples of bison poop, latex gloves, and paper cups used to hold the samples.  Yes, I realize I misspelled "flotation" on this graphic, but I'm not going to redo it.  To conduct a modified McMaster egg count on a sample of bison poop I first use the scale to measure out 2 grams of the sample into a paper cup.  I then use a veterinary syringe to add 28 mL of flotation solution to the cup and allow the poop to dissolve into the solution.  There are recipes you can find on the Internet for making your own flotation solution, but I feel that the commercially available solutions are preferable because they offer greater co

Parasites of one type or another are common to most lifeforms and bison are no exception.  In bison some of these parasites normally aren't a problem, others can weaken them, and still others can kill them.  While different parasite life cycles may vary greatly, a large portion of the most common internal parasites in bison can be detected by testing the samples of the animal's feces (i.e. their poop).  This is because many internal parasites have found poop, as one of the few nutrient rich mediums to pass outside the body on a regular basis, to be a great way to distribute their eggs in the environment.  The above video highlights how I collect manage to safely collect poop samples from a herd of surly bison.  How the tests are conducted will be discussed in a later post. 

The typical view of the roundup from my body camera.  I'll try using a different perspective next year.  Our first bison roundup didn't go as well as I had hoped, but we did learn a lot about what we need to change to make things work better the next time.  Although I did wear a body camera during the roundup most of the footage from that angle (chest height) doesn't show you much of what was going on and the few seconds of decent footage have audio of me cussing, which I'd rather not include here.  Consequently I don't have any exciting videos or photographs for this year, but maybe I'll try using some sort of elevated camera next year. We identified several issues that need work, but our main problem this year was the psychological effect the gateway leading from the main holding pen to the crowding pen had on the bison.  They did not like that gateway.  Each time we got the herd moving in that direction they would stop at the gateway and turn around.  Ev

Yesterday afternoon, after months of work, I finished the last of the welding work on the corral.  Now it's time to test it out.  As is evident in the above surveillance photographs, the bison have already had the last several weeks to inspect the components and eat any grass they found growing there.  My "open door" corral policy backfired this morning, however, when I observed through a security camera that one of the calves had gotten itself trapped inside a sorting pen.  One of the doors (the only one I hadn't tied in place) had blown shut in the wind while the calf was in there and both the calf and it's mother were in full-panic mode.  Grumbling, I walked up there and let it out.   Tomorrow Jess and I will try to work the bison through the squeeze chute for the first time.  We hope to be able to tag last years calves and pull tail hairs for genetic analysis.  One of the big bulls also needs a new tag.  Because it is a little late for

The corral is now setup and, with a late winter roundup planned for this coming weekend, nearly completed.  Normally, a roundup would be conducted in fall or early winter when the females weren't as far along in their pregnancies, but it's taken longer than I'd hoped to complete the corral, so we'll have to make do with what we have.  The plan is to only run the calves and bulls through the squeeze chute and avoid stressing any pregnant bison.

I am now about 80% finished with the welding work on my portable corral system.  All panels ( sheeted and not sheeted ) and the two 10' gates are finished.  Two of the five specialized gate-holding panels are completed and the remaining three are tack-welded.  Nine six-foot-wide gates have been welded together and are ready for sheet attachment.   An image of my corral panel mover captured with my bodycam.  The panel mover, which is basically just two "J"-shaped hooks welded to a length of quarter-inch angled steel, attaches to the top of the backrest of my custom forklift attachment .  The forklift attachment itself (not attached to tractor in this photo) was modified last fall so that the forks could be quickly removed and replaced with a detachable bale-spear .  When the panel mover is in use both the bale-spear and the forks are detached.  To move the giant panels I recently developed a fairly simple attachment for my front-end loader (see above photograp

On of the female bison in our herd developed symptoms of a copper deficiency, and, after many attempts over several weeks to get her to ingest copper supplement voluntarily, I called my veterinarian.  After a discussion of our options he agreed that I could try darting the female with a dose of a trace mineral injectable supplement called MultiMin 90.  When it comes to my bison herd's health and well-being I don't like to leave anything up to chance.  For this reason, prior to darting the bison, I practiced extensively by shooting a water-filled dart at a 50 lbs bag of grass seed covered with an old pair of bib overalls (see above video).  I practiced shooting at 15, 20, and 30 feet until I could hit a grapefruit-sized target consistently from each distance.  The dart gun I was using is a Dan-Inject CO2 Dart Pistol , which makes virtually no noise when fired and is used for darting animals worldwide. Unfortunately, I was so focused on not messing up when I actually did

I call it "celebratory running" because the bison appear to be running out of sheer joy rather than fear of something.  I don't know if this phenomena is seen in other bison herds but my herd appears to do it every month or so.  The above video captures a brief moment of the beginnings of one of these runs.  It's unfortunately the only video I've been able to record of the event.  The process starts when one or two bison begin energetically chasing each other in close proximity to the other bison.  The other bison will watch with interest and several more will then join in the chase as it weaves through and circles around the herd.  More and more animals join until eventually the entire herd is a swirling energetic crowd of bison moving across the pasture at a fast pace. To many people celebratory running can look a lot like other types of running, but there are differences.  Bison in a herd running out of fear, for instance, will focus more on things outsi

During the warmer months our current pasture system provides enough grass to feed the entire bison herd.  However, during the winter months I now provide them with hay purchased from a local source.  The following video shows the feeding process from a first person perspective.