In Episode 018 of the podcast, I visited with the National Bison Association to learn more about raising bison commercially across the United States. We touched on a fair number of statistics to describe this sector of the agriculture business on a national level.
On Episode 019 of the Agriculture Proud Podcast, I follow up with a conversation more specific to Montana and what raising bison looks like from the perspective of a rancher who works with the animals on a daily basis.
Aaron Paulson currently serves as President of the Montana Bison Association and ranches on the Snowcrest Ranch in Southwestern Montana, one of several ranches owned by Turner Enterprises. Much of their bison meat is marketed nationally under the Great Range brand label at several retailers such as Costco.
As discussed in the podcast, many ranchers also make their meat products available locally. A sample of those offering bison meat and products locally in Montana are listed online.
Raising Montana Bison
Raising bison commercially for meat is different than the bison we often see in public lands herds, such as Yellowstone National Park. I spoke with Aaron about several of these differences, fencing and handling requirements for bison, and the Best Management Practices for raising bison that we discussed during the recent MBA Winter Conference.
According to MBA, these best management practices for raising bison commercially focus on:
- Bison grazed using an ecologically sound grazing program
- Bison treated humanely using low-stress handling techniques
- Recurrently monitoring and testing bison to ensure good health using a well thought out herd health program
- Ensuring good containment and management of bison, with each ranch using a well thought out land plan
Follow the Montana Bison Association on Facebook, or learn more on their website – MontanaBison.org.
I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.
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