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Bison ranch, anyone do it?

Island rules

Island rules

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School me on bison farming,

I have a few properties in my sights that could potentially raise a herd of 20 to 40 animals. Just wondering what im not considering. Acerages are in between 160 to 600 acers of land with farm buildings and a residence included for about 300k Canadian pesos... would also be doing a few acres of garlic outside and a few thousand square feet of edible mushrooms (oysters shitacke exetra) in a barn. Land comes with farm tags for wildlife protection purposes.
I know that fencing is a big deal with them but I like their ability to sustain in 40 below weather without needing extra food. The market for bison meat has started to go into rich and famous levels and the hides go for about 2500 Canadian. Im probably missing something so om hopeing one of u guys can talk me out of this bad idea?
 
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Look up the one in Savona NY. It’s 2 years old. Small. Great meat. Check out what they are doing, it’s successful.
 
Just remember there are no bad ideas. In before you get your skull crushed by a 3500 pound mammal. :flipoff2:
 
I've gone to my local bison ranch for the last 10 years. It used to cost me 800 a side of Buffalo now its 2300.. and we are talking young animals...like 800lbs on the hoof.
and there ain't a quicker gun than me in the west.. haha just check our outdoor forum.. that thing was 5 feet from me protecting its kill.:flipoff2:
 
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Every bit of research I've done says 4 acers per animal, but they don't do solitary confinement well
 
Buddies dad has a game ranch with Buffalo on it. Seems to do well enough. Just give lots of room for them to move around I'd say. and yeah fences. :flipoff2:
 
They do fine in the cold as long as there's plenty of feed and water and move where you feed them daily. Fences are nearly irrelevant to them, they go through or over. A buddy dairyman has a big pet pen (~100ac.) with Longhorns, yaks, brama, zebu, barbato, highland, etc. and the buffalo were the only trouble makers. You'd be admiring the collection, turn around for 5sec., hear a thump and one would be standing behind you outside the fence.
 
I'm surprised Bison didn't take off faster, it's such excellent meat at least it was when I had it.

Mushrooms might be a bit more than you bargained for. You ever deal with fungus? The term 'Barn' makes me think you haven't.

There's a reason they grow them in caves. There are a lot of caves in the US with specific temp/humidity. You're not going to need a barn, you're going to need an insulated fortress and climate control at Canadian prices. Once you get them dialed they produce and depending on your operation should be able to employ year-round full-time employees, which will make you popular in farm country.

Then there is the packing and transportation.
 
Some peeps raise bison on the eastside of Zion NP. Owner is hell bent on keeping them in; assholes plow right through fences. YMMV

Give them no reason to roam (plenty of feed); you might have something. :smokin: Petting zoo!:lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:
 
They live behind an expensive fence and do as they damn well please.
 
evernoob said:
I'm surprised Bison didn't take off faster, it's such excellent meat at least it was when I had it.

Mushrooms might be a bit more than you bargained for. You ever deal with fungus? The term 'Barn' makes me think you haven't.

There's a reason they grow them in caves. There are a lot of caves in the US with specific temp/humidity. You're not going to need a barn, you're going to need an insulated fortress and climate control at Canadian prices. Once you get them dialed they produce and depending on your operation should be able to employ year-round full-time employees, which will make you popular in farm country.

Then there is the packing and transportation.
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In my college days I grew hallucinogenic ones.. im well versed in what I need there. More worried about the 4 legged fart machines with a temper
 
Island rules said:
School me on bison farming,

I have a few properties in my sights that could potentially raise a herd of 20 to 40 animals. Just wondering what im not considering. Acerages are in between 160 to 600 acers of land with farm buildings and a residence included for about 300k Canadian pesos... would also be doing a few acres of garlic outside and a few thousand square feet of edible mushrooms (oysters shitacke exetra) in a barn. Land comes with farm tags for wildlife protection purposes.
I know that fencing is a big deal with them but I like their ability to sustain in 40 below weather without needing extra food. The market for bison meat has started to go into rich and famous levels and the hides go for about 2500 Canadian. Im probably missing something so om hopeing one of u guys can talk me out of this bad idea?
Click to expand...

there is a place in Oregon that has maybe 20 bison on what appears to be about 2 acres with a rather standard level of fence.

if you can keep from startling them it shouldn't be too big of a deal. sounds like an awesome project you are looking at, keep us posted on how it goes!

edit: bison seem to only have a temper when they aren't kept fat and happy and unconcerned
 
evernoob said:
I'm surprised Bison didn't take off faster, it's such excellent meat at least it was when I had it.

Mushrooms might be a bit more than you bargained for. You ever deal with fungus? The term 'Barn' makes me think you haven't.

There's a reason they grow them in caves. There are a lot of caves in the US with specific temp/humidity. You're not going to need a barn, you're going to need an insulated fortress and climate control at Canadian prices. Once you get them dialed they produce and depending on your operation should be able to employ year-round full-time employees, which will make you popular in farm country.

Then there is the packing and transportation.
Click to expand...

was it Ted Nugent who spent Millions and Millions of dollars over the last ~15 years or so to actually get bison meat normalized again? somebody like that if it wasn't him. breaking through the "beef. it's whats for dinner" mafia is a serious endeavor.
 
Island rules said:
Every bit of research I've done says 4 acers per animal, but they don't do solitary confinement well
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depends on the quality of the feed on those 4 acres.

you say you have a bison ranch nearby you already, that would be the place to start. they will have a better idea what the grass on the property is like, how much and what extra feed to add, what you can do about keeping them for wandering wherever they want to roam
 
The tenderloins are awesome. The local farm here does drive through tours around the farm with an educational radio station To listen to on them. Takes 20min to tour and is open all day for free.

I might got get some based on this thread.

thr fences are like Jurassic park
 
There are a couple bison farms here. They seem to do ok, but also use it as a tourist trap.
 
In high school a friends family had a small herd of 20-30. IT was hobby for his dad. Compared to cattle they were wild animals. They would tear each other up when corraled and he did mention at least one died from those injuries.

When they moved to WV he sold a few of them pretty cheap to my dad and a friend of ours. My dad kept one a few years. It never seemed to relax around people. He eventually met another guy that had a buffalo herd and gave it to him.
 
You gonna have aces to 400 additional acres to make hay? My uncle has 40-50 head of cattle. He needs to make 700 medium sized round bales to get the animals through the year. He has to rent land and spend 2 weeks a summer making hay. If you buy it they are 70-100 a bale. Besides hay and the super strong fencing they shouldn’t be too much.
I often tease him that he would make more money selling hay than cattle.

Economics: So with his farm of 40 head he has about 20 calves a year. I0 yearlings get butchered every year. 10 calves get sold off because he doesn’t have the place to sell the meat too. So his heard stay at 40ish.

My uncle has 80 acres and he still needs to feed them hay in the summer. The cattle will clean that right off. It isn’t the best land but it does grow grass. You’ll need to be there almost every day to tend the animals. It’s a everyday job. I just bought a 180 acre farm and nope not getting cattle lol.

My uncle retired from the county higway department and now works for me. Me and him were working out of town this summer so I quizzed him everyday over his farm economics during our 2 hrs of driving a day. We also drove past a small bison farm and asked him why he doesn’t have them. I got a big fuck you. He wanted nothing to do with them.
 
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Island rules said:
In my college days I grew hallucinogenic ones.. im well versed in what I need there. More worried about the 4 legged fart machines with a temper
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consumer shrooms are not illegal so the margin, you know, is very thin. And much, much more complex.
 
Provience said:
was it Ted Nugent who spent Millions and Millions of dollars over the last ~15 years or so to actually get bison meat normalized again? somebody like that if it wasn't him. breaking through the "beef. it's whats for dinner" mafia is a serious endeavor.
Click to expand...

The bison I had was prepared by a solid gastropub back in 2000 when they weren't so common and much more likely to be high quality. And it was high quality so perhaps I had the Tenderloin of Bison. But it wasn't a tenderloin cut, forgot what it was. But it was lean yet juicy, flavorful but mild.... I don't know I'm a Bison commercial that shit was scrumptious.

And it wasn't all beat to shit for erstwhile foodies. It was lightly seasoned and mostly meat, the way it should be.
 
There is/was a bison ranch near my family in PA and the guy had a smaller herd like your talking about, there was a truck in the middle of a field that looked like it had been crushed damn near as small as a compactor would`ve crushed one, one of the docile bulls just snapped one day and decided it was time for farmer Fred to tote this ass whooping.
 
My soon to be Brother in law bought a failed bison ranch in Colorado for cheap and is running Angus beef on it now. The story goes that bison don’t see a fence as a barrier, only an annoyance obstacle. If the want out they’ll get out. Looks an unsuccessful bison ranch makes a successful cattle ranch :flipoff2:
 
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