How Do ‘They’ Look? There is a term in animal husbandry called ‘an eye’ or the ‘eye of the stockman’ in farming and ranching. The term simply refers to changes, or judgments of herd and animal health that are visible. I help many different types of folks from a wide […]
‘There’s Somethin’ Happening Here’ Please forgive my artistic flair and the all to often song reference, but fall is the time when we are caught off guard, and absolutely the time of year that is the most important to pay the ‘attention due’ to your herd-health and garner higher production […]
In July, and August, we need to focus on breeding season ‘awareness’. April and May calves are conceived in August and September. The gestation period for bison is 270 days to 300 days for an average gestation of 285 days. The southern plains will also likely continue the breeding season […]
It’s Time to get down to the business of breeding’em up. It’s easy to become complacent about the breeding season when grass is plenty and feeding chores are few. That being said, extra nutrition during the summer and fall can = higher conception rates and more calves next April/May. The […]
Stress management is the biggest issue for bison in the southern plains during the summer. It looks green and lush, but as the temperature rises and the ‘dog-days’ approach, we need to be mindful of the stressors that impact our shaggy guests. Heat stress can be self-managed by the bison […]
They’re here! It’s raining red-dots (again) and anyone blessed by the scene that does not find themselves smitten with the colors of the southern plains in spring, should consider having something checked. It is a brilliant combination of reds, purples, blues, browns and sable that only unfolds for folks raising […]
Get Ready – Get Set – Stop! Bison are unique in that they are tended-wildlife in production models that require some management (and) they require some, ‘being left alone’. Some herds in the southern plains are still engaged in herd-works for good reason, but it’s time to wrap things up […]
February in the south can be hard to set your planning calendar by. We can have lots of moisture cycle extremes and the best plan is to be ready for anything. Much of the drought-stricken areas have experienced relief, while some are still waiting. This reality can make it hard […]
Funky Fall = Management Curve Ball The southern plains can be lush and green this time of year for those that get busy in the fall with planting winter feed and providing a normally very happy November for their herds. I always say that the buffalo in the Dakotas surely […]
What ‘the heck’ happening Out There! This is a normal question in the southern plains this time of year. Everything has been so green and the bison living has been easy all summer long. All at once the rain stopped, and just in time to stop the growth of planted winter feed […]
Southern Plains Bison Pointers Oct 2017 Bizy-bizy-bizy! November is fast and busy with the business of planning for winter, marketing, and herd health management strategies. If you missed the fall planting season in the southern plains, you will need to plan for hay and other nutritional supplementation for bison herds. […]
Southern Plains Bison Pointers September 2017 You Ready? Fall is here. Summer is gone, and we won’t know which old-man-winter (we get) until we are right in the middle of it. The Southern Plains can be wildly different than the northern regions as far as planning and caring for our […]
Water Worming 2017 has dealt us an interesting August. We’ve seen rain and relatively cooler ‘dawg-day’ temperatures intermittently. The grass is jumping, and out-running the herds, and the livin’ is easy. This has also made for an interesting southern plains summer in other regards. The plant community has become atypical. […]
The ‘Dawg-Days’ and ‘Hands Off Help’… Well, it ain’t very cold out there, and this time of year is always the hardest for Texas & Southern Plains Bison. Our charge as humans is to plan accordingly and provide the bison with the ability to be resilient and get through all […]
The heat lamp is on which means everything changes for our herds. One of the things that changes is decisions we make about animal-ops and how we consider their well being affected by the ambient temperature. When the heat rises so does stress, and that leads to additional ‘weakness’, or […]
Everything is changing and throughout the month of June, southern grasslands and prairies will go through 3 stages that effect herd health. While up north the first green up is just now in full swing, in the south we are at the end of the first growing season and […]
Calving Season Tips & Texas Bison Week Tis the season to be cautious and reject the human tendency to over attend nature. That’s easy to say, but hard to do with your money on the table and your compassion for the animals turned up to high trying to be a […]
Calving season has begun and if your are among the blessed living history ‘with bison’, there’s nothing like the colors of spring and early summer made more brilliant with a newborn crop of sable American icons alongside their brown mothers. As caring stewards, we try and prepare for the worst […]
Green-ups -a -commin! And – quick! Most regions in the southern plains are breaking over into a lush state of pasture and range conditions, while the high plains will take a bit longer. Many herds are now in the process of working herds and preparing to balance their AU’s to […]
Fast Times Where the Buffalo Roam Everything is happening all at once and my advice is to: get ready – get set – & SLOW DOWN. In the southern plains we tend to work herds later in the year than in the north, mostly because our weather cooperates and […]
Don’t believe what you see! Ghosts, goblins and other miniature versions of superheroes and villains will be everywhere tonight, but they’re not real! – Just fyi (!) The other thing that may not be real is the grass you see when you look out across the field. The transitional period […]
The southern plains have experienced an unprecedented summer with perfect rains and lots of forage. Normally this time of year is marked by brown fields and ‘dusting in’ fall crops. This year, we are looking for dry spots to be able to get into the field. If you have been […]
Looking Out for Them Southern plains bison have been blessed this year with unusual rains in the dog days of summer and lots and lots of grass. I have actually seen cool season prairie bloom, and cool soaking rains in August. My biggest message to bison owners is ‘don’t let […]
Southern Plains Pointers July 2016 What The Heck – Is – Going On Out There? (!) This is the time of year that we need to know stuff, as opposed to assuming stuff, about how our herd is weathering the dog days of summer in the southern plains. The dynamics […]
Heat, Flies & Get Ready! The dog-days of summer in the southern plains are hot (!) and full of things that need management before they get out of control. One of those things is flies, but it can be hard to know how to address the problem with available methods […]
Things happen fast The southern plains are known for strong cool season forage. It’s a blessing through the winter and early spring for our native grazers, but as the transition sets the game for a long summer, the management of pastures and knowledge of plants can help you understand what’s […]
Calving & Adapting To Us Things tend to happen all at once this time of year, or so it seems in the southern plains, leaving us charged with thinking ahead and managing for stepping aside and letting nature take its course. Calving problems can happen with bison. Heifers do heifer […]
Green-Up Green-up happens early in the southern plains bringing diversity in the available food for your herd that may not catch your attention. Many become selectable during fleeting successions, while other plants seem to dominate the landscape and by now; look like ‘emerald waves of gain’ [sorry] for those operations […]
Ramping up for Red-Dots While it’s true that bison are a wildlife species native to the southern plains, it’s also true that they are roaming the southern plains of the 21st Century. 300 years ago, they would have been grazing highly mineralized native forage and benefiting from a diverse plant […]
Successes, Failures &Taking Responsibility Tis the season in which we find out about our management, our handling and our bottom-line validation in raising and producing bison. I am not home much this time of year and am privileged to watch, and be part of, many operations in the process of […]
This holiday season was nothing short of a roller-coaster for folks and bison in the southern plains. We went from Christmas in the 70’s to spring jet-stream collisions and tornadoes, to drifting snow and ice in a period of a week. This kind of stuff really brings into focus the […]
Checking boxes: Tis the season to check boxes as you make plans for addressing the health, both financial and physical, of your herd and their habitat. If you would rather refer to their habitat as a farm or ranch, I’m fine with that, but at the end of the day […]
Conception Rates, Culling Decisions & The #1 Factor This is the time of year when we all prepare to work our bison and make decisions about our herd based on what they are doing for us, or represent to the sustainability of our economic model. I tend to look at […]
It’s Official! Texas and the southern plains are back in a drought. Just last spring, we were literally under water. Some regions are becoming severe while others are just damn dusty. Unfortunately, the drought is hitting southern plains bison herds at the worst time of year for health and reproduction. […]
What’s going on out there? While I wish there were management boxes that could be checked that result in herd-health and production assurances, it just doesn’t work that way when you’re in charge of habitats and animals. August and September are the months that require of us the ability to […]
Out where the buffalo roam, the mating season is marked by behaviors and sounds of territorial declaration. In my travels across the southern plains – breeding season normally begins now, and is evidenced by deep loud vocalizations, as well as a change in the attitude of otherwise un-aggressive bulls. All […]
Lots of grass, plenty of water; what could go wrong? Right? This year is different than many of the past, and in many ways including any normalcy in nature. We can expect that our native-grazers might also be a bit more mysterious if we don’t observe diligently – ascertain and […]
A historic amount of rain is blessing the southern plains to the point, in some locations, of causing reason for concern in ranch and bison health management. This year will also be historic, because of the rain, as a liver-fluke year. Take a ‘Google’ at the liver fluke life-cycle, and […]
Decisions – decisions – decisions… Managing a bison herd and their habitat is all about decisions. During the changing of seasons; some decisions are being made for you – but without you. Dealing with the decisions made for you, by ‘mom-nature’, are the proverbial curve-balls that take a little more […]
Red Dot Alert! The first new lines of 2015 models are sprinkling the southern plains with big heavy brown clouds gathering and indicating a big event. It will soon be ‘Raining Red-Dots’. The colors of the southern plains this time of year are brilliant and diverse as ecological succession paints […]
February in the Southern Plains is a time for questions and checking the management-boxes for preparedness to leave the herd alone throughout the calving season. Some of those questions and boxes are: Am I feeding them too much in the last trimester? Is my mineral program up to speed? Do […]
Getting Over the ‘Hump’ Thanks to an unusual November and an atypical polar blast, the southern plains is experiencing less winter forage than we usually enjoy. Even the dedicated forage-croppers are unusually stressed for feed, causing the need for additional supplementation for bison health. This reality can vary widely within […]
Christmas is 360 days away and people already have their lights up! It’s all about perspective… For those folks that my little comedic intro applies to; it might also be about preparedness and efficiency. My personal perspective, as a southern plains bison steward, is that the cool season and winter […]
Making the Hard Decisions Easier Well…. Here it comes again – the season of change, with some for bison – forever. In the southern plains, winter does not have to be dead and dormant, but if we are not busy in September and October, we may not find ourselves in […]
Going in to November is all about planning and making the best decisions possible during the seasonal shift to winter operations. Once again, as with all other seasons, it’s all about feed. Personally I like to enhance the already bountiful cool season in the southern plains, by adding seed to […]
Busy-busy-busy! Fall in the southern plains is the best and most productive time to be busy in preparation for the cool-season, which is our strongest growing season in the south. Whether you apply conventional agriculture methods or forward regenerative practices, getting some land care and habitat enhancement boxes checked will […]
A Time for Questions – Not Answers! Many bison herd-managers and owners, feel that they are winding up the breeding season and are; pretty much ‘bred-up’ by now. If the largest percentage of the calves come in late March and April, this could be an accurate assessment of your situation. […]
It ain’t very cold out there! J Actually going into August sucks no matter where you call home in North America. Things like nutritional regimes, ambient temperature and behaviors are changing. Bison in the south are more equipped for the southern plains heat than you think. The latter is a […]
It ain’t very cold out there! J Actually going into August sucks no matter where you call home in North America. Things are changing, and the bison in the south are equipped for the southern plains heat more than you think. The latter is a true statement with the caveat […]
Just a word before I write about southern plains bison realities that are current, but less about ‘meanwhile-back-at-the-ranch’ stuff. That word is worms! I will follow that by saying worms, worms, worms, worms, worms! They are the enemy and the #1 production and reproduction challenge to bison of the southern […]
Texas Bison Week Buffalo Drum News Always free at: www.allaboubison.com The first week of May is Texas Bison Week since 2008 and through the year 2022 as a ceremonial proclamation. Debbie Northrup was first to initiate the proclamation to coincide with a Texas Bison Festival; after which the Texas Bison […]
Spring has sprung and it won’t be long before it’s “raining red-dots” across the southern plains. There are a few points of interest in preparing for a new generation of American icons. The lush spring green explosion in the south can be less mineralized than the harder grasses during the […]
Green-up’s here! Yee-haw! What a great place to live if you’re a [Native Grazer] while your relatives in the north battle blue storms and last mile of what can only be referred to this year as a marathon winter. Our green-up in the southern plains is very aggressive and prolific. […]
Well… we got hit early and the assault continues as old man winter takes toll on, and tasks survival of the southern plains. We’ve only got another 20-30 days of having to put up with his polar rant. Food plots will re-emerge and bolster the nutritional regime for southern plains […]
Old man winter showed up early for work in the southern plains this year with a historic ice storm. Roads were closed; cattle were huddled up against the fences; pigs, goats and chickens in the barn; dogs and cats living together and declaring armistice inside by the fire, but the […]
November is a very interesting month for Southern bison habitats and operations. The definite and oppressive announcement of winter upon the landscape changes everything forever: once again. It is during this time of year that we humans, be-we: ranchers, park superintendents, consumers, lawmakers or bison stewardship-collectives and consortiums, also […]
This month I would like to shift the focus of my comments from managing herds, to managing destiny as a bison producer and/or bison-species restoration partner. You may have already read; its official that November 2nd is now National Bison Day! Woohooo – yeehaw and job well [done] right? […]
Southern Plains Bison Pointers Aug 2013 The dog-days of summer are upon us in the southern plains and hopefully we have all our preparations for a strong breeding season in order and working. If you’re catching up, then exhaust solutions to herd management that do not_ require high levels of […]
It’s getting crazy out there! Bulls are ‘roaring’, tending and sparring causing you to begin to sensing that you might not be as safe out there on foot all of the sudden. Trust your senses…. And don’t be out there on foot this time of year. They’re busy and other […]
It’s June going on July, and the southern plains and getting hot! This is the time of year that stresses bison in the south most of all. During times of dealing with heat stress, can come a reduced capacity for resisting herd health antagonists which are ever-present and poised to […]
The Bison Industry Moth – or flame? We’ve all heard the saying, ‘Like a moth to a flame’. While discussing the need for multiple news sources about bison, my wife suggested calling a news letter ‘The Flame’. I thought it was a great concept, but as it occurs quite […]
Posts Tagged ‘Bison Week’ TBA Bison Conference Kicks Off Bison Week Apr 25 2011 via TheHuntingWire.com AUSTIN, Texas — Preserving the legend of American buffalo, the Texas Bison Association (TBA) announces its Annual Texas Bison Conference & Fund-Raising Auction will be held on May 6, 2011, through Mary 7, 2011, at […]
Fifth Annual Texas Bison Expo November 7 Written on: 10/31/2009 by: The Outdoor Wire Click a star to rate this entry Average user rating: 0.0 (of 0 total) Fort Worth – Buffalo are a true American icon that hold a special place in the hearts of all Texans, and the Fifth […]