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Anyone start a bison ranch from scratch?

M

MOsaints

New User
Hey y?all, never posted here before, or on any forum
really. Ultimately, what I?m hoping to obtain through
this is any experiences anyone may have had, or
heard of, when up and running a bison ranch. I?ve
done my research and will continue to, but there?s a
lot of info I still would like to get ahold of. I?ve called
bisoncentral and talked to them but it seems like
they always direct me to their sources they?re
selling. They also told me my biggest obstacle is
land. I?m wondering if I could start out small with the
idea of shooting for a 100 bison head would I be
able to see a profit? With good soil and 40?
precipitation a year, how many acres? I know it?s
hard to understand what I?m asking without every
aspect into consideration but is it possible to do this
while still making a profit? I don?t mean a big profit
or some of unheard of number or wealthy I just
mean after loans, land debt, mortgage and having a
family and everything else with fencing and
irrigation would it be plausible to assume I?ll be
pocketing an income if my herd were large enough
? How large would that head need to be? I?m in the
army and plan on using TA for a ranch management
degree( if there?s a degree more suited please tell)
and then working on buying my land. I plan on
getting out to go back home to SE Missouri. Also,
for anyone who?s drove bison, I?ve read that
catahoula dogs do well with the bison, is that a little
absurd or is it true? I know they?re dangerous and
cause a greater risk but ultimately this I what I?ve
wanted to do. Sorry for the long post and thanks in
advance.
 
Its a nice dream but unless you have a very rich uncle; it'll probably be unobtainable. Ted Turner has buffalo ranches all over; why not apply to that organization and at least get your feet wet and rub elbows with the people in the business!
 
Three specific items (direct and indirect experiences and friends with herds). They require radical fencing and gating to begin to contain them. 5 to 8 times the cost of conventional herds of beef. They are wild animals and not trainable. They are very easily turned attitudinaly dangerous. Though the market for meat is there, the real effort is strenuous and unique to the animal. Beefalo may be a transition to consider. Jim
 
I don't know much of the details about raising bison but a local guy does it and seems to do ok. He has fenced 80 acres of our wild land and got 30 some head in there. More now since they started calving. Yes, fencing is expensive as it is a heavy page wire six feet high. Big posts probably 8 footers at least. Its all new to me and I'm hoping to make some video of them when time permits.

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It can be done it?s a lot easier if you have a checkbook like Robert Redford. The type of fence they require is amazing when they get out the guys around here shoot em and butcher em they like trying to stop a freight train. I hauled some a few times and when you get ten or 15 moving they shake the earth
 
not sure where at in the bootheel your looking at, but first things first, what is ground bringing in those areas? Maybe look at 40 acres you could afford to fence and start with a 5-7 ish or so bison cow calf pair and fence off 5-10 acres as a finish lot for your bull calves to see what your getting into and create your market or learn where your market is. With things like craigs and fb marketplace, there should be options out there when selling, maybe try partnering up with a butcher or learn to butcher yourself. start looking at the local auctions to buy a cheap ol semi and reefer trailer so you could slaughter and hang year around, set up your own bison market / farmers garden thing. turn it into a spring through fall weekend event for folks. advertise with your local FSA and FFC then get involved with the local FFA and county fair board. once your get things rolling start looking at expanding. Take advantage of the VA small business loan options and use FSA to get ground bought. 300K as a young farmer/rancher program. They will carry that note 40 years instead of 30, but remember, you are making another deal with the government...

if it were me that is....

Good luck after seps
 
From my experience, any large grazing livestock will not generate enough income to build an enterprise and support the family. You need another source of income/funding.
 
Used to be a big for this area farm about 2,000 acres that grazed bison and sold them for meat called Georgetown Farms they even had their own slaughterhouse.Fencing was with
electrified high tensile,they grazed a long side the road in a few places never saw them out of the fence.The loading lot and alley were all made from guard rails.
Don't know if they made any money as the farm was owned by a Billionaire but he was known to be pretty tight with a buck$ so I imagine it did make money.He was in his late
80's sold the farm and the Bison.The meat is really good sells for quite a bit more than beef.
 

It comes down to how good a salesman are you? How much bison do you eat every week? How much does your family eat per week? I have a few friends who used to raise Scottish highlander beef cattle. They were supposed to get good money for the beef, but it was not readily sold through the same path as conventional beef, so they had to sell it themselves. If you just ship to the slaughter house and leave it to them to sell, you will not make enough to make money at it. That is where you have to really dig in and find out where your product will be sold and for how much. It is not like taking a load of Black Angus to the auction.
 
Years back I knew a fellow who was going to raise them. He started out with 7. His biggest downfall was inadequate fencing, He never had it strong enough. They were constantly getting out. He lived on a busy road and eventually all were killed by vehicles. Too bad. I liked to see them out to pasture. My comment would be.... build good fences!
Cal
 
Ted Turner was going to market the meat thru his resources at Carrington North Dakota, and the growers never got paid for them, it broke a couple of producers, i hope he is happy !!
 
There use to be a guy on here that raised them somewhere up in Northwestern Canada. He went by the Handle of Bison. Too bad he doesn't chime in. Don't here much from him anymore. He could give you first hand experience.
 
There used to be and could still be close to Winamac. Indiana. Saw the heard one time.. He has a food stand at the Winamac tractor show every year and sells burgers there. They are good but got priced too high for me to afford. He also was selling the meat there at the show and I think from his home. old-9 might be able to give more information about him as that is his local area.
 
Buffalo is some of the best meat you?ll ever eat it is a little dry when you cook it almost have to put a little butter with it but you don?t have to
 
Here in Wayne Co. Ohio there have been some small herds off and on. The main ones right now are Whitefeather Meats. Google them. Maybe they would welcome someone to open a branch in another state ? Maybe not ?
 
(quoted from post at 11:11:26 06/18/19) Buffalo is some of the best meat you?ll ever eat it is a little dry when you cook it almost have to put a little butter with it but you don?t have to
Click to expand...

I agree if one ever eat some Buffalo you'll know why the Indians relied on Buffalo for food .
 
Wow, thanks to everyone for such quick replies! It seems drowning in debt won?t be ideal so starting small and expanding would be. I?m going to go into rangeland economics and management and if I don?t get into my own ranch at least I?ll enjoy the job even if it?s for somebody else or the govt. thanks to all. Really good thinkers on this site. Definitely getting in touch with some smaller scale bison ranchers when I come back.
 
A summer job on a bison ranch or intern work as a co-op student could be a great introduction to the business and also give you a leg-up in the job market at graduation. Worst case it would be a chance to see what it is like and would be once in a lifetime experience you'll never forget.

Good luck in your studies.
 
I have no experience but several years ago I talked to a guy who had a buffalo herd and he said to make sure the grass inside the fence is better than the grass outside the fence as no fence will hold buffalo in if they want to get out.
 
I left a long post last night about raising bison but it is no longer here.
What happened.????
 
(quoted from post at 08:33:21 06/19/19) I left a long post last night about raising bison but it is no longer here.
What happened.????
Click to expand...

Bison are you sure you hit the submit button? I forget it now and then. I think that he really needs to hear from you. It appears that he is not showing concern for the sale of the meat. Does it really sell itself?
 
I?m sorry but I don?t see where your post was on the
list of notifications, but I?d love to hear what was in
it.
 
(quoted from post at 09:17:18 06/19/19)
(quoted from post at 08:33:21 06/19/19) I left a long post last night about raising bison but it is no longer here.
What happened.????
Click to expand...

Bison are you sure you hit the submit button? I forget it now and then. I think that he really needs to hear from you. It appears that he is not showing concern for the sale of the meat. Does it really sell itself?
Click to expand...

Yes I did hit the send button and I got the message that it was successfully submitted.

an other thing that is odd, normally when I read a new topic(which are in blue) ,the next time I visit that topic will show up in black.
This one remains in blue even after I post and look it up the next time I visit the site.

PS, Last night it took me 40 min to type that reply, only to find I wasted my time,..I aint to keen on doing it again
 
Bison,

maybe you can go to your profile and find all your posts and copy and paste it back in.

Id like to read it as well.
 
(quoted from post at 04:59:52 06/20/19) Bison,

maybe you can go to your profile and find all your posts and copy and paste it back in.

Id like to read it as well.
Click to expand...
looked but there is nothing in my profile that shows anything where I can find my past posts.
 

On Modern view go to top of page & look for box labeled search. Enter your handle in box labeled author then click on search. Your posts should show up.

mvphoto38011.png
 
(quoted from post at 21:16:52 06/17/19) . I?m wondering if I could start out small with the
idea of shooting for a 100 bison head would I be
able to see a profit?
Click to expand...

The short answer is "no". You will never be able to make a profit on bison if you are trying to buy land to raise bison.

Bison are very cost intensive. The fence costs alone stop even people who already own land from getting into it. Just price up a truckload of 6x6 10 foot treated posts to give your self an idea of what you're in for.

Also, bison are big, mean, tempramental, and basicaly they are like a bull with is @ss on fire when it comes to working them. A favorite trick of theirs is to hump up in the squeeze chute so the operator thinks they're locked in and then you get too close to their head and they lunge out about 2 feet and break your hip or ribs.

And if they bust a fence and get out, you better get your wallet out because they'll tear up every fence your neighbors have and that won't make them very happy. Also, when they get out have you thought about how you're going to catch them? Hint, don't try the old cowboy/horse gag, lots of guys have gotten themselves gored trying to herd bison as if they were cattle.

We USED to have a nieghbor that thought it would be fun to have 25 or so bison as a little "hobby" opertaion. They went cheap on the fence, of course, and then the bison got out and did about $10k in damage to neighbors fences, but that wasn't the worst thing.

Once out, the bison simply could not be caught. They are hard to spot, even from the air in mixed woodland/fields and even when you spot them, so what? What are you going to do, go out and lasso them and drag them home? So Mr. Bison Guy ended up getting told by the sherrif, you got 2 more days to get them or they're bison burgers. 16 of them got shot, so pretty hard on profits if your breeding stock gets out and gets shot.

Grouse
 
(quoted from post at 14:18:33 06/20/19)
On Modern view go to top of page & look for box labeled search. Enter your handle in box labeled author then click on search. Your posts should show up.

mvphoto38011.png
Click to expand...

Hmm,..only 1 post on this particular topic shows(was made by the OP) up but none that I made. And I made at least 3 since yesterday.
 

Sorry I haven't utilized the search function very much. Another thing you can do on Modern view is find a post authored by you or you're the last to reply. Then click on your handle & that will pull up your posts.
mvphoto38012.png
 
Around here I watched several places put up fences and start with bison n the early 80's. Only one left now. I will have to disagree with some posters here, I thought buffalo was the nastiest smelling and tasting meat I had ever tried. Will never eat it again.
 
(quoted from post at 14:21:46 06/20/19)
(quoted from post at 21:16:52 06/17/19) . I?m wondering if I could start out small with the
idea of shooting for a 100 bison head would I be
able to see a profit?
Click to expand...

The short answer is "no". You will never be able to make a profit on bison if you are trying to buy land to raise bison.

Bison are very cost intensive. The fence costs alone stop even people who already own land from getting into it. Just price up a truckload of 6x6 10 foot treated posts to give your self an idea of what you're in for.

Also, bison are big, mean, tempramental, and basicaly they are like a bull with is @ss on fire when it comes to working them. A favorite trick of theirs is to hump up in the squeeze chute so the operator thinks they're locked in and then you get too close to their head and they lunge out about 2 feet and break your hip or ribs.

And if they bust a fence and get out, you better get your wallet out because they'll tear up every fence your neighbors have and that won't make them very happy. Also, when they get out have you thought about how you're going to catch them? Hint, don't try the old cowboy/horse gag, lots of guys have gotten themselves gored trying to herd bison as if they were cattle.

We USED to have a nieghbor that thought it would be fun to have 25 or so bison as a little "hobby" opertaion. They went cheap on the fence, of course, and then the bison got out and did about $10k in damage to neighbors fences, but that wasn't the worst thing.

Once out, the bison simply could not be caught. They are hard to spot, even from the air in mixed woodland/fields and even when you spot them, so what? What are you going to do, go out and lasso them and drag them home? So Mr. Bison Guy ended up getting told by the sherrif, you got 2 more days to get them or they're bison burgers. 16 of them got shot, so pretty hard on profits if your breeding stock gets out and gets shot.

Grouse
Click to expand...
I have never heard so much untruths and negative comments from somebody that never had any bison and by his comments alone shows that he absolutely does not know a thing about.
Shame on you.
 
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