2025 Bison work day was a success. Only one heifer that we couldn't even get in the pen, but otherwise a flawless day.
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Successful Bison work day
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Last: 2 days ago by mefoghorn
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Where in the Hill Country? Is there a good livestock credit for them?
Beautiful animals. Do ya'll sell the meat?
Tatanka
we have a few processed every year, but haven't gotten to actually sell the meat. We do sell live animals. Putting some in an online auction in a couple of weeksO.G. said:
Beautiful animals. Do ya'll sell the meat?
Here's my Tess. I have her on a herd in Nebraska. I'm the absentee owner. Long story. Glad to see Bison owners in Texas.
We are fairly close to where you probably are. Spent the weekend in Peterson Hospital a year ago when I got in a fight with our herd bullKerrAg76 said:
Where in the Hill Country? Is there a good livestock credit for them?
That's neat. My parents bought the herd about 6 or 7 years ago out of the Caprock Canyon herd. Apparently, the herd is descended from the Goodnight herdmefoghorn said:
Here's my Tess. I have her on a herd in Nebraska. I'm the absentee owner. Long story. Glad to see Bison owners in Texas.
Cool stuff
Just out of curiosity, what does a Buffalo typically sell for? Majestic animals and one of my favorite! Saw hundreds in Yellowstone last summer.
Them bulls'll hook you.
One hooked old man Barlow and he was a slow walker after that. I heard he married a widow woman and had a passel of kids after that.
Nicely done HC!
One hooked old man Barlow and he was a slow walker after that. I heard he married a widow woman and had a passel of kids after that.
Nicely done HC!
ReloadAg said:
Just out of curiosity, what does a Buffalo typically sell for? Majestic animals and one of my favorite! Saw hundreds in Yellowstone last summer.
The market varies a lot. Just sold a bull calf for 1500. Two years ago I got only 900. I got Tess as a 2-year old heifer for 1800 in 2021.
yes they canCE Lounge Lizzard said:
Them bulls'll hook you.
One hooked old man Barlow and he was a slow walker after that. I heard he married a widow woman and had a passel of kids after that.
Nicely done HC!
HillCountry15 said:
That's neat. My parents bought the herd about 6 or 7 years ago out of the Caprock Canyon herd. Apparently, the herd is descended from the Goodnight herd
Correct.
Remnants of the southern herd. DNA checked to eliminate any with cattle DNA mixed in. We've seen them in Caprock Canyons a lot. They are free-ranging so we get our share of tourons. At least one got a helicopter ride after they got a horn ride.
How often are you having to go recover one after it jumps over one of your fences?
I feel like my cousin's bison in NW Oklahoma gets out every few months.
I feel like my cousin's bison in NW Oklahoma gets out every few months.
And I'm curious about temperament in pens when working? Like cattle or more or less excitable?
Amazing, beautiful animals, but they scare the pants off me. Massive, agile and fast and unless you bottle raised one from early on, they seem unpredictable and dangerous if you don't know what you are doing
Corps_Ag12 said:
How often are you having to go recover one after it jumps over one of your fences?
I feel like my cousin's bison in NW Oklahoma gets out every few months.
Have never had any jump a fence. All perimeter and cross fences are 48"
Hi Tensile with two strands bw
Do you sell mini bison? Asking for my daughter…
Deerdude said:
And I'm curious about temperament in pens when working? Like cattle or more or less excitable?
They don't like being confined. But we
Weighed, vaccinated, tagged, and wormed 30 animals in two hours. No issues whatsoever. Very smooth.
Cannot yell or make sudden movements. Can't "John Wayne" these animal. Keep quiet and they work fine.
From my experience working with them at the pens/chutes at the slaughter/processing plant I managed in the past:Deerdude said:
And I'm curious about temperament in pens when working? Like cattle or more or less excitable?
Most of the time, they tend to work just like cattle. However, when you do get one that is "excited", it is usually much more extreme in actions than cattle.
They are more agile and much stronger for their size than cattle, so when "excited" it can get pretty hairy pretty quick. Pens must be taller and much stronger to ensure they stay in. A full grown bull can clear a 6 foot fence fairly easily. When isolated as an individual, they are more excitable - they very much prefer to be in a group when moving. Once separated from their group, it is oftentimes easier to put the group back together to move them than to try and move a separated individual.
As with cattle, human patience is key. A well designed set of pens makes things much easier. They are easily moved when their vision (line of sight) is restricted. Solid pen walls and gates go a long way to restricting their sight - you just open the gate to where you want them to go and close off the area you want them to move out of. It works most of the time, but there's always that one in the bunch. Put the troublemaker in the lead and the others usually "push" them where they need to go.
Part of the Caprock Canyons heard, October 2017
hillcountryag86 said:Deerdude said:
And I'm curious about temperament in pens when working? Like cattle or more or less excitable?
They don't like being confined. But we
Weighed, vaccinated, tagged, and wormed 30 animals in two hours. No issues whatsoever. Very smooth.
Cannot yell or make sudden movements. Can't "John Wayne" these animal. Keep quiet and they work fine.
That's all the difference in cattle. In my youth we used horses and force. We've realized it's much safer and easier to work them with feed bucket and patience.
My friend has them for 1,000, less expensive than a cow and much better meat IMO.
All animals, and particularly exotics, can be dangerous. Cattle have been known to kill people. We certainly respect our bison. Some will eat out of our hand and seem as gentle as possible. We still are very aware of our surroundings and try to be as vigilant as we can.BlueSmoke said:
Amazing, beautiful animals, but they scare the pants off me. Massive, agile and fast and unless you bottle raised one from early on, they seem unpredictable and dangerous if you don't know what you are doing
My son, the OP, was severely gored a year ago by our herd bull. Until that day, the animal showed no sign of being overly aggressive. We fed him out of our hand.
We were going to work the herd that day and my son drove the Mule into the pens and scattered cubes to gather the animals. He drove out of the pen to park the Mule and throw away the feed bags. Strangely, the herd bull stayed outside the pens. That was odd as he was always the first to go after the cubes. My son parked the Mule, got out, took two steps, and the bull was on him. Put a horn 5" into an area by his upper thigh and stomach.
The bull gored him, yanked his head up, threw my son in the air, flipped him and he landed on his back. Luckily, the bull did not charge him when he was on the ground.
It missed his femoral artery by less than an inch.
He was in the ER for several hours and had emergency surgery that night. All is good now but it was a very sobering lesson. And my son is very used to these animals as he regularly works them.
As for the bull, he continued to show some aggressiveness after that day so we processed him. His shoulder mount is on my wall and the rest of him is in the freezer.
Glad I processed the animal as he was too aggressive. But it's a shame. He came directly from the original Goodnight herd at Caprock Canyons.
About 10 people a year, worldwide, die from shark attacks. In the US alone, the annual death toll from cattle is 22.Quote:
All animals, and particularly exotics, can be dangerous. Cattle have been known to kill people
But then, people generally aren't herding or trying to work sharks.
Coming soon to cable TV: Cow Week
We had a Beefmaster bull about 15 years ago just as laid back as can be. Never aggressive but twice he came up behind me while I was pouring a sack of cubes in a trough Guess I wasn't out of his way fast enough. He basically just tossed me up in into/over the trough.
Cattle are curious folk sometimes.
Cattle are curious folk sometimes.
For the rancher who interacts with his animals on many days of the week, Bison are actually very gentle with those they are familiar with. It's easy to get to a place where you can pet them or feed them an apple out of your hand.
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