Saskatchewan Bison Ranching Helping Native Grassland Habitat [VIDEO]

After the near-total extinction of North America’s bison herds in the late 19th century, much of the prairies' native grassland habitat was sacrificed to grow various grain, primarily wheat.

Today, bison and cattle ranching help by playing an important role in the preservation of the remaining native grassland by providing a viable alternative to cultivation.

"We're raising an animal that's indigenous to North America and they are very suited to our climate and our conditions," explained Lorne Klein, Bison Farmer in the Weyburn area. "That's not saying that they're any better than beef cows or anything else. It's just different and you know a century ago there were very few bison remaining. 150 years ago they were on the verge of being extinct. There were less than 1000 bison in North America at one point. They went from a population of somewhere in the ballpark of forty million, give or take. It's interesting. What were all the forces in action that made that happen? But now because they've been commercialized you've got bison ranchers that are raising them."

Although bison farming/ranching began in the early 1900s, it was only sometime in the 1970s that production really took off in Western Canada.

"Now the bison population in North American is about 450,000 I believe," Klein stated. "Certainly they're in parks now but the majority of them are raised commercially on ranches. There are several differences between bison and cattle. You know they're both ruminant animals. I wish I could give you numbers of hairs per square inch but it's significantly more than beef cattle. If it's 35 below and windy they could just care less. As long as they're being fed properly they can stand out in the extreme cold with a very high wind chill and it just has no effect on them."

Recently Lorne's wife Donna shared a video she captured of some of the bison they currently have on their farm during their annual vaccination day as well as a video from when they moved the herd this past summer. (View video below courtesy of Donna Klein)

"So once a year we bring the herd in for vaccinations and parasite control," told Klein. "So that's what we were doing that day. In the wintertime, we feed them hay bales out in the pasture so they're never locked up in a corral. They're always out in the field in the wintertime and that's where we feed them hay. So we bring the bison from one of the pastures and bring them into the corral. And they don't really appreciate being confined to the corral. So it's a bit of a process to do it. We lure them partially into a smaller holding area and then we pressure them into the corral. Once we have them in the corral then we start to bring them out in small groups at a time and put them through the handling facility. And the final point is the bison squeeze where you hold them up, and we give them their vaccinations and parasite control in there, and then you release them one at a time. So we treat them for both external and internal parasites and vaccinate them for anthrax and blackleg. It's common for beef farmers to do the same thing."

Klein added that as far as raising the animals goes it was a normal average year.

"You know, we were a bit dry up there, that's for sure," Klein said. "After we were finished that day they went back out to the pasture. They're out for the rest of the winter and there's nothing else going on, besides once or twice a week, depending on what's going on, I usually feed them hay, and then we wait for late April when they start having their babies. And normally we have a fairly high pregnancy rate."

Bison cows normally give birth once per year, usually from April to June, with most of the calves being born in May.

"Then through the summer the main chore is making sure they have adequate grazing and clean water," added Klein. "So through the summer, I rotate them through a series of 12 paddocks. And in each field, I pump water for them so that they don't go into the dugouts. So basically through the summer, it's just moving them from one field to the next. When you're moving the animals you have to use techniques to keep their stress level as low as you possibly can. So when we move them in the summer, that would be the video that would be the most fun to watch. Because I've trained them so that when I show up in my vehicle and start honking the horn, that means this is moving day, and they are always very anxious to go into the next field. So I'll get near them and start honking the horn while driving to the gate that they're going to go through. I have to have the gate open before I even start because there is no way that you want to be at the gate with them and you have to still open it for them to go through. They would just be like kids in a candy store crowding at the door to get the ice cream. They stampede through the gate. So you have to get there, get through it, and get out of the way. They are excited to get to the next field and they don't know what slow motion is. They only know to stampede."