Buffalo Dan's Bison

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.