Bison Stats
193,000
on more than 1900 private U. S. farms and ranches
21,000 on state and federal land
2022— The National Bison Association
Bison’ s Impact in the 2023 meat market
80,000 bison were harvested in the U. S.
Chad Kremer jumped up on his flatbed and rattled a 5-gallon bucket of alfalfa cubes. A couple of hairy heads swung our way, and a dozen pairs of beady eyes eyed us warily.“ Buffs!” Chad shouted,“ Come on in, buffs!” and rattled the bucket again.
In a gentle motion, the simultaneously odd-yet-regallooking creatures ambled toward us.
Wary no more, the buffalo cows eagerly munched down on the cubes, and one gal stared at us with a piece of a tumbleweed stuck to her forehead. A little gawky yearling scampered up, her face full of curiosity and interest, then took refuge behind an older cow’ s rear end and occasionally peeked out.
“ That’ s her calf from last year,” Chad said, watching the cow and heifer interact. The yearling has another year before she gets bred, so those maternal bonds continue within the structure of the buffalo herd.
Hanging back and observing from a distance were three cows with their cinnamon-colored calves at their sides nursing, their little tails whipping back and forth.
“ That one’ s new.” Chad pointed at the smallest of the calves.“ There were only two over here earlier.”
The American bison is practically synonymous with the Old West, one of those symbols of a time wilder and freer than we know, symbols of strength and dignity and plenty, but one of those symbols hunted nearly to extinction in a tragic side story of the drama of Westward Expansion. The estimated herd of 30-60 million on the American continent was reduced through slaughter to under 1000 animals, nearly eliminating a vital food source for Native Americans and needlessly wreaking havoc on ecosystems and ways of life. Over the last century, however, a concerted effort has been made to restore and protect what was so nearly lost, and in more recent years bison ranching has gained interest and support.
People are drawn to bison ranching for a number of reasons, from the historical and cultural context, to the animals themselves, or the quality of their meat, which is prized as a high protein, leaner alternative to beef.
“ In the‘ 90s, when I got interested in it, it was more the intrigue of the animal and the Old West,” Chad said. Best known as Custer State Park’ s“ Buffalo Guy,” and known by some as the“ Buffalo Whisperer,” he is himself a bison rancher with upwards of 30 years of experience raising the majestic animals, and nearly 25 years of that experience has been spent right here in the rolling grasslands adjacent to Custer State Park, where he and his wife, Suzi, manage their own modest herd of between 80 and 120 breeding-aged animals. They primarily run a cow-calf operation, selling the calves in the fall, but Chad also sells starter herds, markets meat direct-toconsumer( or“ gate-to-plate,” as they say), and provides mentorship and guidance to new bison ranchers, helping them get established in the business.
“ I grew up on a corn and soybean row crop farm [ near Reading, Minnesota ], and when I was real young, we had a beef feed lot and fed some hogs, too. I always like the animal side better than the farming side of it,” Chad said. While at South Dakota State University, he took a public speaking class, of all things, and through one of his projects he ended up researching and speaking on the buffalo herd at Blue Mounds State Park in Laverne, Minnesota, and attending their annual bison auction. One thing led to another, as so often happens, and connections made at the auction led to ranch visits, and he was hooked. It took a couple of years, but in the winter of 1992-1993, he bought his first bison calves and put them on his family’ s place in Minnesota. A couple of years later, they added a bull, and their buffalo operation got off the ground. His fascination was contagious, because to this day his brother continues to ranch bison in Minnesota and is one of the state’ s biggest producers.