Scott Peterson and Ranch Manager, Tom Swan
By Larry Dreiling-Senior Field Editor
The High Plains Journal
Published: December 3 ,2001
|
Scott Peterson and Ranch Manager, Tom Swan By Larry Dreiling-Senior Field Editor The High Plains Journal Published: December 3 ,2001 |
A tough fall morning lies ahead, at the Jumpoff Buffalo Ranch, in western South Dakota. The time has come to move 200 bison cow-calf pairs to another pasture.The ranch is named in honor of the Jumpoff, the nearly 200-foot high shear cliffs in the Hell Creek Formation that cut the 8,500-acre ranch in two. From those cliffs, Native Americans would push off their buffalo herds in a mass slaughter to harvest meat for food and skins for clothing and shelter.
The land is challenging. For ranch owner Scott Peterson and his ranch manager, Tom Swan, the challenge of moving bison will take several hundred horses--under the hood of a single dually pickup. The bed of the pickup is loaded with protein cake made from wheat midds. Swan opens the gate connecting one paddock with another, climbs into the truck bed and starts flinging out cake with a big shovel, while Peterson drives the pickup into the next pasture. At the first sight of cake, a thundering herd comes running like little kids chasing an ice cream truck on a hot summer day. "The buffalo can move from one pasture to another in 45 minutes by just dumping a little cake out the back of the truck and letting them follow me," Peterson says. "They know it is time to go." Sure enough, within 30 minutes all the pairs and 17 bulls are moved from one 1,000-acre pasture to another. The ranch is divided into 10 paddocks, ranging in size from 640 to 1,000 acres. "When we first started out with the bison, we put up some big, high fence around one perimeter area," Peterson says. "Now, all we have through the rest of the ranch is cattle fence, with an extra wire on top. Besides, the best fence is good grass and water. We also are fortunate that our pastures here are big ones and all tied together." Like most bison operations, the Jumpoff was once a cattle ranch. Peterson was drawn into bison by seeing their calving ease and winter hardiness. The reduction in labor intensity was an additional drawing card. "Of course, there is the mystique of the animal," Peterson says. "It really draws you in. They are majestic animals. It is a lot different from when we had beef cows. We pulled up a lot of fence since they left." Peterson started his bison operation May 1, 1996, when he contracted to purchase 120 unborn calves from the nearby Slim Buttes Buffalo Ranch. "We brought the calves home after they were weaned and let them grow up right here on the ranch," Peterson says. "A year and a half ago, we picked up some animals from another buffalo rancher. That pretty much converted us to all bison. "This last summer was the last summer we owned any beef cattle. We owned beef cows for a couple of more years, then ran stockers for couple of years after that," he says. The most recent pasture rotation is the last one before the bison are placed in another 1,000-acre paddock for winter. Once the snows of South Dakota arrive, Peterson and Swan will haul six big bales of feed out to the pasture every other day or so to supplement what the bison can forage. "We will feed them as they need to, but for the most part, they can root around in the snow," Peterson says. "I have seen them in winter, three days after a storm. By their tracks, you can see they have never even been to our stock tanks. They are happy with snow for water."
The adaptability of bison to the elements is apparent when you see them stand away from the wind, rather than into the wind like a beef cow, Peterson says. "Their lung capacity is four times stronger than a beef cow. They adapt to the habitat," Peterson says, recalling how the first full year he owned bison, a bad spring snowstorm swept in, killing 40 beef cows belonging to a neighbor. All of Peterson's bison survived. "We took 170 calves off cows last year, and didn't have a single problem," ranch manager Swan says. "We weaned 89% calves from cows last year." That conception rate is considered way above average in the bison business. It helps that the females are estrus synchronized before the bulls are brought in. "We start calving around the end of April and run through June," Peterson says. The majority of our cows will calve in a one-month window. The calves quickly adapt to the territory and the climate. "We flush our cows with cake to synchronize them. We pull the bulls to make sure we don't have any fall calves." Health care is similar to beef cattle, with the bison cows receiving an injectable wormer each fall and cake with wormer in the summer. "We weigh our cows each year, and milk them to see if they carried someone," Peterson says. "We also vaccinate the calves with a seven-way and Bang's vaccinate the heifers. "We wean the calves from the end of November to beginning of December. We put them through our corral system through the winter. We split the herd up between keeping them here or sending them to the feedlot. After we slaughter the first group that had been in the feedlot, the second group will follow.
"I grew up over in Revillo, SD, by Milbank and Watertown. We raised corn and fed cattle there all my life. My brother is there on the home place now and we have our feedlot set up to feed buffalo. We can take half the herd at a time there." Bison need to be moved or taken to the feedlot in large groups, Peterson says, because they have an established social order. "You just can't easily separate them. You pull 10 away from the herd, and you screw things up, because you may have pulled out their leaders," Peterson says. "That is why we try to go in and take a potload at a time. It seems our rate of gain is better when do it that way, up to four pounds a day."
As a member of the North American Bison Cooperative, Peterson is required to place his animals on a grain-fed diet a minimum of 90 days before slaughter, at the co-op's New Rockford, ND, plant. This ensures the marbling of the animal's meat is white in color, which is appealing to consumers. "We feed them more than just 90 days, Peterson says. "We feed pellets and all the hay they want to eat when we begin them in the feedlot, and the mix gets hotter with corn, in those last 90 days to finish them. We bring in corn, at the end. We probably are among the few bison growers who feed corn, but that is because of our availability to get corn. It works good for us."
There has been a debate over the years over whether or not bison should be placed on a grain diet prior to slaughter. Some in the business say grass-fed bison offers the consumer the traditional way Native Americans ate yellow marbled meat. "We have to adapt to what the consumer wants," Peterson says. "It has been my experience the consumer wants a grain-fed animal. The rule of the bison cooperative is to provide grain-fed animals. A grain-fed animal proves to be a better tasting animal, especially as a steak." Trying to meet consumer desires is a hallmark of the bison co-op. Its plant is one of a handful in the U.S. that simultaneously meets U.S. Department of Agriculture, European Union and Kosher processing specifications. "It is a spotless place, and you can see why they can meet all three requirements," Peterson says. By giving consumers what they want, Peterson hopes producers can help make bison more accessible to the general public. "For the long-haul success of the industry, we need to get past the perception that bison is a luxury item served at white tablecloth restaurants," Peterson says. "We need to do, and we already have done to some extent, some price adjusting in order to make bison more common place." Peterson and Swan swapped stories on bison over breakfast, at the American West Steakhouse and Grill, in Belle Fourche, SD. The place is clean, unfussy and family oriented. It is the kind of place where bison should have a place. "I think you are seeing more everyday restaurants like this one serving bison burgers. It has a bison steak on the menu," Peterson says. "The industry is working on bison hot dogs and other items that you can call heat and serve.
"Compared with the beef industry, we are so tiny. We will never be any threat. It is not our goal. We just want people to know they can enjoy bison any time," he says. That will take education, Peterson admits. He knows many people who have tried bison, in the past, and did not have a good eating experience. "One guy once told me, he got some meat from a guy who shot a buffalo on a hunt, at Custer State Park," Peterson said. "The guy shot a 15-year-old bull, brought it home, butchered it and then ate it. He said it was really tough meat. "There were two problems with that. First, he shot an old bull. Second, he probably went to some guy who didn't know how to butcher it. He also didn't know how to prepare it. "One secret to cooking up a good buffalo burger; see how restaurants put a weight on top of a beef hamburger to get it to cook faster. Don't do that with buffalo. You do that to a buffalo burger and it cooks the taste out of it right away. "Also, when you eat a buffalo steak, back it up a step from where you like beef. If you like your beef steak medium, try ordering that buffalo medium rare. Don't cook that flavor away. We need to educate the consumer on proper preparation to get the best flavor, along with letting them know the health benefits." In only his fifth year as a member, Peterson recently became president of the Dakota Territory Buffalo Association.
"How did I become president? The inability to shake my head no," Peterson says. "Seriously, the Dakota Territory Buffalo Association is definitely one of the premier associations of its kind in the nation. We have a strong following, with high-caliber producers. Things like our show, in Rapid City, are a real highlight." The association has a show and sale during the Black Hills Stock Show. Always innovating, last year, the group held its first bull carcass show and, this year, its first heifer carcass show. "The carcass show is reality-based," Peterson says. "We took 10 bulls into RC Western Meats, in Rapid City, and basically pounded them out. We took the percentage of the bulls' body weight and the percentage that went in the box. Obviously, the bigger he was in the back, the more he put into the box and the more money he made. "Our ranch was lucky enough to win first prize, in that first show, and $10,000. It indicates we are doing something right with our breeding and feeding programs. "Also, 50% of what we produce is heifers. You sit down to eat a buffalo steak and there is a 50:50 chance you are eating a heifer. We are excited to learn how a heifer pounds out." Like many industries, the bison business is facing a shakeout. At a recent show, at Reno, NV, Peterson purchased, at auction, the second place 2-year-old bull. The price, $1,800, was far below prices paid at previous shows. "Some of the people who were paying big dollars for show animals a few years ago aren't in business any more. Some of that is due to the state of the industry; some is due to the state of the nation," Peterson says. "We used to have a lot of people going out to buy 20 to 50 head and they were having Rancher Joe down the road take care of them. They could sell a calf the next year and get a tremendous return. "Our industry got out of whack. All the people in it for the investment opportunity have left, and the market has crashed. "It is easy for that bottom group to be happy when everything is great, but as soon as something tightens up, they will find something else to invest in, just like in any business. We just rode a high where everyone was tickled. Now, with the national economy the way it is, there will be some people falling out. "We, who have stayed, have come to admit we really are a meat industry. While the breeding stock prices went crazy, some of us have tried to target known bloodlines and work from there. "We will come back to a proper price level with people in the industry that are truly agricultural people. Our products will return to a price level that will be profitable, but not crazy. "We need to make the product justify the price. That is value. Too many people get into panic. Cutting price is not the only way to move product. It is increasing quality. "Once that happens, we will see long-term stability. We are trying to take control of costs by eliminating the middleman, so it goes directly from us, the producers, to the restaurant or the retailer.
" When they aren't having fun with bison, Peterson and Swan have fun with hunters, who come out to the ranch for contract deer hunts. They also host numerous archeologists and paleontologists who want to look at the formations of the Jumpoff area. These formations are buttes that contain dinosaur fossils that are over 60 million years old. "One of the fossils that was found on our ranch was Willo, what they call "the dinosaur with a heart," which was a Thescelosaurus," Peterson says. "There was also a partial T-Rex excavated from our ranch. "We had some guys out from North Carolina a while back. We had them out on horseback. We rode around and they stopped to look at what I thought was a rock stuck in the ground. They dug it up, and they said it was piece off the horn of a triceratops. This is quite a place to study." With all the beauty and history the ranch offers, Peterson knows it is still a place of business. That business is raising bison. "The buffalo industry will be whatever we make of it," Peterson says. "In the cattle business, you are kind of it in for the ride with everyone else. We have a lot of opportunities in the buffalo business, if we do things right. If it fails, it is because we did things wrong. That is rather exciting."