About Our Bison
Meet our bison and what sets them apart.
Thundering Ground Bison Ranch is dedicated to raising pure plains bison (Bison bison bison). The breeding herd is registered with the Canadian Bison Association as a Plains bison foundation herd.
The bison are raised and managed in a manner to preserve as much of their natural instincts and behaviors as my ranching situation will allow. Production practices are guided by the bison’s needs and the needs of the land which creates an environment that fosters ecological diversity and preserves the bison as a species.
Breeding Herd
The breeding herd is made up of 50 adult bison cows and three herd bulls. They roam 320 acres of grassland on the edge of the boreal forest West of Edmonton, Alberta. Calves arrive in April and May of each year and spend the summer and winter romping around the fields under the watchful eye of their mothers.
I ensure these animals are healthy and have the proper nutrition to raise strong and healthy calves. By not allowing bison to overgraze the grass lands through rotational grazing practices nutrition provided by actively growing forage is always at its best. They have free access to minerals to balance out the nutrients.
The breeding herd goes through an annual round up in early January. This round up serves to have a close-up inspection of the cows. At the same time calves are tagged and weaned from their mothers. At the end of the day calves are loaded and moved to the home ranch.
Young Bison
When the newly weaned calves arrive on the home ranch, which is just SW of Edmonton, they are released onto and open field/pasture into a group of bison that are a year older. It helps to calm the calves when they have others to show them the ropes. From this point I pretty much leave them alone for the next year.
Young bulls are separated out from the young females and calves into a group of their own. It makes management easier as this group get handled a bit more in the spring as animals are taken out for processing.
During summer months bison are free to roam and graze to their hearts content. In the winter these bison are put on a good quality hay. However, if quality hay can not be procured in a ‘bad hay year’ the bison are supplements with a few rolled oats to keep the nutrition where it needs to be to meet the requirements for a growing animal.
Harvesting & Processing Bison
All meat I sell comes directly from bison raised on the ranch from birth through to harvest. This is done to ensure the highest quality that meets my standards. Bison harvested for meat are of prime age. Bulls are 24 months and females 30 months. They live their life out on pasture with as much freedom as my ranch can offer. I also focus on low stress and minimal handling. This results in a meat that is tender, juicy and rich in flavour.
Bison are harvested by a small local Government inspected abattoir in central Alberta and are aged for a minimum of 10 days. Bison do not require extended aging as beef. Once processed all meat is vacuum packed and flash frozen to ensure quality.