Raising and selling bisonby Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Raising bison may sound like an piece of cake way to enhance meat animals, as bison don't require shelter, even in northern climates; however, Martha McFarland, in a recent Practical Farmers of Iowa presentation, said that anyone interested in raising bison needs to fully empathise the animals outset.

She said that while she doesn't consider herself a bison expert, she has been raising bison nine years and is a fellow member of the Minnesota Bison Association (she hasn't establish an association in her state). Her Iowa farm, Hawkeye Buffalo, includes 50 bison, plus a few Hereford beef cattle that she raises with her father, Dan. The duo sells bison meat and live animals, plus opens the farm for agritourism.

The farm is a mix of 130 acres of woods, pasture and open grasses, plus 60 acres of cropland they rent out and 40 acres of hay.

McFarland said the biggest fault people make almost bison is thinking that since they graze and are raised for meat, they are just like cattle.

"The very virtually important matter to know if y'all should raise bison is that bison are not cattle," McFarland said. Cattle and bison can interbreed to produce beefalo, but these offspring are oft sterile.

I of the biggest differences is in the animals' personalities. "I love my Herefords and they need me; the bison, on the other manus, takes care of itself," McFarland said.

Bison need no barns, for example, and are very tolerant of weather weather condition. Even though she makes h2o available to them all twelvemonth, "they often consume snow as often as they come up up for water," McFarland said. They're hearty enough that their weight gain is the aforementioned yr-round.

"They'll face into the air current and walk into a storm," McFarland said. "They have efficiency with feed. An old-timer said that yous can give them any old hay and they withal proceeds weight. They consume iii% of their body weight per day in feed."

McFarland has i bison cow who has calved every yr and is virtually 15 years old. Bison live as long equally 28 years.

Bison accept longer to go to market. Operators should anticipate two to 2.5 years before a bison is large enough. Considering of their larger size and the relative rarity of bison, they command a much college carcass price compared with beef.

"There are over 40 one thousand thousand cattle in the U.Due south. and less than a million bison," McFarland said. "At that place is an untapped market that producers like myself cannot continue up with. There's no need for competition. It'south a friendly manufacture."

She said bison tours have contributed to her sales. Consumers have shifted from thinking of bison as a novelty meat to a type of meat they savour. The farm sells directly to customers who pick upwards meat from the farm, both in individual cuts and wholesale portions.

She said that although 2019 proved to be a down year for the bison industry, the health benefits of bison are driving demand, along with the consumer trend of buying locally raised food, as nigh bison producers are smaller operations.

She said bison is high in protein with fewer calories than beef – 145 calories per four ounces, compared with 375, and with far less fat. They sell bison for $10 a pound and are currently sold out.

While the vigor of the animals and prices for the meat audio enticing, she warned would-exist growers that they may need to adjust their prejudices of the animals – as well as the peak of their fences.

"The good news in raising bison is when I tried to find the crazy videos or pictures, I didn't have many," she said. "They can alive in a smaller, enclosed space and bound higher than a 12-pes fence. When they are out and have elbow room, they're pretty laid back. Every operation is going to be different."

Farmers too need to realize they'll have to wait until a bison heifer is three to accept a calf, non 2, like cattle. They as well cannot mix sheep or goats with bison, as they are carriers for cancerous catarrhal fever (MCF). MCF can wipe out entire bison herds.

"The most important thing is parasite treatments," McFarland said. "There are strategies like a safeguard lick block, only I feel it's not consistent enough if you're having trouble with parasites. Thousands of years agone, an animal would come through this area and would not come through once again for years. Nosotros don't accept that kind of space to break the parasite cycle."

She besides warned hobby farmers to avoid buying just one bison. "They're very herd-oriented," she said. "If you have simply one, I don't feel information technology would thrive. There's a hierarchy within the herd. A bison will tear through a fence if they're trying to become to the balance of the herd."

She harvests bison from the field. While she maintains that they're non aggressive animals by nature, the constraints of a chute and cattle truck would stress them as well much. "You don't want to get down in the middle of the herd," she said. They may push confronting each other and hurt the farmer in that instance.

"When working with them, we stay outside the herd and stay back as far as nosotros can from the animals considering of how quickly they move," McFarland said. "I definitely don't want to get into the middle of the herd. It'due south worth noting that I can motion them on foot past myself. They're not super aggressive. Each herd is dissimilar and I'm very comfortable with my herd. Since they know me, it's nearly easier to piece of work the herd by myself than if I brought in x people."

She said bison herds need at least five acres. She uses half-dozen-foot-loftier electrified high tensile wire in her fencing.

"A bison in the wild wants to turn and run away," McFarland said. "They could be ambitious, but that typically happens in a time or identify where they're trapped and the threat isn't going abroad."

For any vet intendance on her bison, she uses a treatment facility with a crash gate that swings forward effectually the head gate. She stressed that it'due south because bison are fast, not that they're ambitious. "Recollect about a bison like a deer," she said. "Bison are amazing intuitive creatures. They're awesome. You retrieve you take them all figured out and and so they surprise you.

"The bison aren't looking to challenge the fence unless there's something really good on the other side and they're hungry," she added. "We make sure they're well-fed and happy and they won't claiming the fence."