Bison Production & Conservation
BIG HORN BISON PROGRAM
Land Management
As we make steps to actively produce genetically pure bison herds, we plan to manage our lands to maximize the efficient harvest of grass in order to produce a viable bison product. Big Horn Bison will manage each of their ranches soon to be large herds, on-range and year-round, with minimal supplementation for the natural, native environment for which they will live. Each herd’s breeding bull-to-cow ratio will average one bull per 12 cows. After a bull has reached 6 to 7 years of age, they will be extracted from the breeding herd, and used in the Big Horn Bison Ranching System’s sustenance living program. A cow within a breeding herd will be deemed non-productive when management acknowledges their lack of breeding or reproduction of viable calves. Non-productive cows will be extracted from the breeding herds to be used within the Big Horn Bison Ranching System’s sustenance living program.
Yearling replacement females will be selected based on their individual gain on grass and conformation before they reach 2 years of age. Upon selection they will be run with the cow herds after their weaning period subsides. Breeding bulls will be selected to enter our herds based on their individual gain on grass and conformation after they are 18 months old. We plan to select both of our replacement bulls and heifers from the top 10% of their cohort individually based upon each one’s performance displayed from the time they begin weaning until they are 2 years of age.
The Big Horn Bison Ranching System allows mother nature to naturally manage our herds for selection grading purposes. Doing this brings clarity to each bisons’ individual fleshing ability, maintenance, milk production, and reproductive success. This will ensure the Big Horn Bison Ranch management teams of a bison’s productive efficiency and environmental compatibility through a meticulous yet naturally humane, multiple trait selection process. This process additionally ensures our ranches are maximizing their production of a genetically pure bison, and a viable top-tier bison product per our land’s capacity. The Big Horn Bison Production Ranching Systems will hold a criteria stringent upon removing cows deemed non-productive from our active breeding herds. Our system does however, consider extreme environmental conditions year-to-year that might take place on our ranches before making the decision to pull a bison from a herd. Under this criteria, The Big Horn Bison Ranching System expects to keep a high percentage of replacement heifers going into our breeding herds.