Interpretive Summary: Current Overview of Bison Ranching in the US
By: Jeff M. Martin, Ph.D. | Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University & Extension Bison Specialist
Bison ranching in the United States includes a diverse portfolio of operation sizes and goals. Some ranches are as small as a few head operating as small-scale hobby farms and others are as large as several thousand head roaming on ranches extending beyond 1000 km2. There are approximately 400,000 bison in North America with a little over half of those located in the U.S. The Great Plains states are where the most bison are located. In the U.S., bison are raised on nearly 1200 farms and many operations choose bison because they seek to restore ecosystem function of prairie grasslands in the treeless west and re-establish buffalo meadows in the wooded east by relying on the ecological uniqueness that bison provide. Ultimately, all operations require sustainability of all ecosystem services including provisioning products for profit, carbon sequestration, grassland and prairie habitat restoration for many other prairie-obligate species, and increased soil-water retention to reduce downstream flooding.
According to USDA data, on average 60,000 bison (30% of all U.S. bison) are translocated annually with more than 70% — and a growing share over the last 20 years — of those en route to slaughter. The recent movement of mobile harvest systems have percolated into the bison industry, specifically on Indigenous lands and on grass-finished operations. The remaining share of those translocations are used to establish new herds in new places or bolster genetic diversity in existing herds. However, bison restoration requires healthy herds. Bison moralities are twice that of beef cattle and are especially susceptible to non-native, novel diseases such as Mycoplasma bovis (2013 USDA resource and MTF url) and Haemonchus spp. Disease detection, diagnostics, intervention treatments, and prevention for bison that are targeted and effective while not affecting non-target species such as dung beetles with some of the long lasting anthelmintics.
Even though bison are ruminants like cattle, they are still a wild species that respond strongly to seasonality with metabolic rates, life history cycles, and naturally undulating body condition scores. We are just beginning to learn more about the differences of the GI tract microbiome communities and resulting differential metabolomics between bison and cattle on the whole, among various diets, and across seasons at various locations. Continued research into this realm may reveal underlying mechanisms of bison rumination efficiency on poor forages and highly diverse rangelands. However, we still lack complete understanding of nutritional requirements specific to bison.
