Bison Farm Diary

Putting On Coats

2008-09-04T14:34:00.007-05:00

Our weather changed drastically Tuesday with the dropping temperatures and rain. The high yesterday was 61 degrees, with a stiff north wind. I reached into the closet for a jacket to wear anytime I was going outside. We'd welcome 61 degrees in the spring, but after our 90 plus degree heat we had last week, it feels cold.
So, maybe the buffalo are smart by starting their winter coat early.
We're also seeing other signs of winter approaching; the deer are more visible in the evening, the Snow-on-the-mountain milkweed is blooming, and we're seeing geese flying in formations in the sky.
And Takoda is just about done with his breeding season. Here's a cute photo of Takoda courting Freda. Her look just says "Whatever..."

Turning Towards the Sun

2008-08-30T18:13:00.004-05:00

The local fields of sunflowers are starting to bloom. They turn their yellow heads with the sun until the seed sets. There are more sunflowers grown in Western Kansas and in drier climates, but we have a few farmers that grow it locally to rotate with their wheat ground.

Because sunflowers have a large tap root, it breaks through the hard pan that can form with grain crops. In other words it "fluffs up" the soil.

These seeds will be harvested when the stalks dry down this fall and they will be crushed for sunflower oil. The kind of sunflower seeds we eat, are called a confectionary variety and are different than the oil variety.

Buffalo Bull with an Attitude

2008-08-23T13:10:00.004-05:00

August is breeding season for bison, and this is Takoda's first year as herd bull.

He's had a bit of a attitude (more than usual), and has been "courting the ladies".

Last Saturday there were four carloads of families that happened to come in at about the same time, and they naturally walked up to the fence because the herd was close to the Visitors Center.

I walked out to the group because I could hear Takoda growling from inside the Visitors Center. He didn't like people near his herd right now, and didn't quiet down until everyone moved back 20 feet from the fence.

When a bull talks, everybody better listen!!

Buffalo Herd on Indonesian TV

2008-08-15T15:20:00.012-05:00

Today's surprise was being filmed for a Voice of America TV program to be shown in Indonesia!

Two people spend over two hours filming the buffalo, interviewing me, and some tourists from Sweden that had stopped by too.

Cow Kajsa wasn't too sure about the one camera person getting down to her level by the fence, and she kept a close eye on her. It will be playing in two weeks, and they promised to send me a DVD of it.

Growing Bison

2008-08-07T18:17:00.003-05:00

When I walked down to check the water tank, I stopped to really look at how much the bison calves are changing now. They are getting browner, besides developing their hump and horns. They are blending in beside their moms compared to when they were first born with their cinnamon wool coat.

Takoda, our three-year-old bull is also changing and bulking up in size. He's now taller than the cows, I'm guessing he's tipping the scale at 1400 lbs. Takoda's head and shoulders are taking on the look of a gigantic bodybuilder. He'll pack on another 800-1000 lbs in the next three years.

Goodbye to July

2008-07-31T19:42:00.004-05:00

Wow- where has the month gone? August is going to roll in tomorrow and I feel like I've barely started summer. Of course we've had a cool and wet July (compared to some years) so thankfully it hasn't been our typical hot and dry summer.

August starts the school season (kids start Aug. 14th here), and it's the month to get all fall merchandise and supplies ordered, AND get ready for the fall maze season.

Today reminded me of fall because of an unusual foggy morning, so I took some photos at the farm gate to show you how thick the fog was. The Visitors Center barely showed up being a light gray color, but the yellow orange pumpkin blossoms glowed like little lights through the fog.

I was out early to get ready for the filming of a TV commercial, plus a motor coach bus tour of grandparents and grandkids was heading our way.

The fog lifted in time for the video shooting, and the bus passengers were thrilled to be filmed "getting off the bus" as part of the commercial. Of course just a few shots of everything will be used, but they thought it was fun to be included.

Remembering my Blessings

2008-07-24T16:25:00.004-05:00

"I'm too blessed to be stressed."
That's my new motto after hearing it from motivational speaker Jon Gordon. He was a speaker at our Maize family conference last February that we weren't able to attend- and I'm just now watching the DVD of the conference...
This last week was a whirlwind of activity with groups here, orders to fill, and the phone to answer, all while Patty was on vacation and out of the office. So of course I lost my voice, and came down with a summer cold...
But hey, Patty and my voice are back... Plus I have family, food, and freedom, so I'm blessed.
I thought this photo summed up my thoughts- the flag flying freely and the buffalo resting by the Visitors Center. All is calm and well on the farm.
Actually, it has been very hot and dry this week. The pasture is getting dry when you look at the contrast of the dark buffalo against the golden grass. We could use some rain.
With this hot weather, haying season is in full swing in the neighborhood. Here's a photo of my Dad cutting through our farm with two wagons of hay bales to stack in my brother's pasture next to us. These bales will be used for winter cattle feed in six months.
I'll try to remember that cold winter chill the next time I step outside into the current hot wind...

Thinking about Agriculture

2008-07-17T16:12:00.011-05:00

The Bison Farm Visitors Center was used on Monday for a "think tank" meeting of Farm Bureau people, trying to figure out ways to best promote agriculture and the crops we grow for consumers.

So since I'm thinking about agriculture products this week, here's a photo of another crop grown in our area. This farmer was baling alfalfa this morning.

The 1 to 2 foot alfalfa is cut above the plant's crown when the crop is blooming with its purple flowers. It is raked into windrows and sometimes raked again to allow air to dry the plants out. The baler drives over the windrow, picking it up and rolling the dry plants into a tight round bale, and automatically tying baling twine around the whole bale to keep it together.

When the bale is finished, the back end of the baler hydraulically opens up and kicks the bale out. Alfalfa bales usually weigh around 1500 lbs. This dried alfalfa is a perennial plant that can be cut three to five times during the growing season, depending on the rain fall, and it will be used as winter protein feed for livestock.

Our bison like to eat these bales too because they eat the fresh version in their pasture.

Here's a snapshot of our growing calves coming up to the water tank. Except for the two younger calves, they look like 8-10 year old kids- and act like it too. They now eat grass and drink water from the tank, and play as a group- but run to mom when she calls, and to raid her for a satisfying chug of milk.

It's been a while since I mentioned the pumpkin patch, so here's a snapshot of the first blossom I noticed this morning when I turned on the drip tape system on zone 1. The plants are growing vines and slowly taking over the alleys between the rows. We'll be into fall harvest before we know it.

Oh yeah, its Farm Diary Day...

2008-07-10T16:48:00.008-05:00

As I drove down the Visitors Center driveway this morning, I noticed that the cows had pushed the portable water tank up against the fence, bowing out the wire.

That caused a big gap, just enough for a calf to walk through, especially if it gets trapped between a couple of cows and the water tank.

I took some photos of the pretty front flowers around the Visitors Center when I got out of the car, thinking I could talk about them for my farm diary today.

Dyllan came in early this morning to do some wall painting in the gift shop, so we chatted a minute after I walked in the door. I asked him to turn off the electric fence and move the water tank back into the pasture.

As I said that I looked out the window and there stood SanDiego, the youngest calf, in the middle of the driveway with a look of surprise in her face. She got pushed out and didn't know what to do next.

"Let's go get her in," I said as I reached for the camera that I had just placed on my desk.

"Oh yeah, it's Farm Diary Day..." was Dyllan's reply. So here's the "story of the day"...

Finishing Kansas Wheat Harvest 2008

2008-07-03T16:07:00.004-05:00

Loren and Dad finished wheat harvest Tuesday. Mom usually rides along in the grain truck to the elevator at least once during the season, so here's a photo documenting their 62nd wheat harvest together.

And here's a photo of a neighbors field that says it all- a full bin of wheat in the combine, a full truckload and a harvested field of bright yellow straw.

Kansas farmers have had some bad weather and luck with the past few wheat harvests, so wonderful to get a good crop off the field this year.

Harvesting Kansas Wheat

2008-06-26T17:42:00.003-05:00

Wheat harvest is the main activity in Kansas right now.

It's a hot dry 97 degrees today and the harvest combines are going full blast, trying to get the wheat out of the fields before the weather turns to storms again.

Overall the fields have been averaging 50-65 bushels to the acre, which is a good yield. Last year we had a late freeze and the average yield was between 7-20 bushels to the acre.

The wheat price is currently up- which is good to offset the cost of fuel. (The combine will hold 85-100 gallons of diesel.)

Here are photos of my brother combining across the road from the Bison Farm, and my 85 year old Dad waiting for a full truck load of wheat to haul to the elevator.

It's hot but very satisfying work to get the crop in!

Itty Bitty Buffalo Baby

2008-06-19T14:21:00.005-05:00

Baby Alert! The highlight of this week was that Camille had her very first calf yesterday. It is so tiny, especially when compared to the calves born two months ago. I'm guessing it only weighs 40 lbs instead of the usual 50-60 lbs, but that can be typical for a first pregnancy.

Otherwise it's been a quiet week at the Bison Farm...which is fine by me. No tornados, floods, hail, buffalo breakout...Oh, except that the tractor has a flat tire, but Dyllan is taking it off now to get fixed...

The long season pumpkin varieties are planted, three new grazing paddocks are seeded, and now we have a little lull before we start getting ready for the fall season.

So now's the time for me to work on the website, get new products up, tweak here and there to improve traffic and sales.

Where the Buffalo Play

2008-06-12T19:02:00.005-05:00

First thing at 9 am Patty was walking by the office window and said "Why are the buffalo running down the alley?"
"WHAT!?!" was my reaction as I whirled my chair around to the see the last of them galloping by. They just blasted through a five-wire gate!
Running out to the porch I see Dyllan scrambling to close a back gate he had just opened to drive down to check water tanks.
Takoda and the cows stopped just past Dyllan, in the alley across the fence from four "next for the freezer" bulls and jumped, snorted and carried on, having a blast at their antics.
Buffalo!! We had all these orders to pack and the calves and yearling heifers were playing Tic Tac Toe between paddocks! (This was the first sign that there was no voltage in their electric fence.)
I drove the pickup into the pasture yelling "Come Esther!!" out the window, with Dyllan sitting in the back shaking the "treats" bucket. Esther (and the reluctant herd) was obediently following behind me until a group of visitors stepped out on the porch to watch their move. That set the herd off and back down the alley they ran. I tried one more time, but they knew they were supposed to go back and just didn't want to.
I decided, heck, they would come back when they were thirsty and we went back inside to get the Father's Day orders ready to ship.
About 2 pm, they came moseying back, and as I shut the gate, here was a broken wire on it that was too tempting for a calf or heifer and that, with no voltage, started the whole scenario.
Dyllan fixed the gate, got the voltage back up, and we got the orders done before UPS and FedEx picked up at the end of the day.
It's never a dull moment when you live with buffalo!

Watching the Weather

2008-06-06T15:22:00.004-05:00

I didn't get my email out yesterday due to the storm preparation, and having the computers off.

Wednesday the National Weather Service issued a "very significant weather alert", saying conditions Thursday would closely resemble those of June 8, 1974 when 36 tornados touched down on the Plains, costing lots of damage and lives. They were also predicting large hail to the mix too.

Yesterday morning was super windy and hot, with clouds tumbling constantly in the sky. We prepared for the storm that could cause damage to our farm on top of the hill.

Porch tables, chairs and anything that could fly in high winds was moved into the shop out of the weather. The car and pickup were parked on the Visitors Center porch to be protected from the hail.

We cut the ropes that held on the tram tarp and took it off so it wouldn't be torn by hail, and cause the tram to be picked up and slammed against the building. (We've had that happen in the last little tornado we had...)

I had emergency things in the center bathroom and we were ready. The tornado sirens were activated in local towns when the temperature plummeted and the storm hit late afternoon.

Of course my big worry was what would happen to the buffalo herd (and the babies). There was nothing we could do but watch. When the storm hit, they laid down (which is their typical response to lightning), then got back up when the rain slowed down.

The photos (taken from the porch) show the herd in the distance- one when the storm was moving in, and the second when it was just steadily raining. During the worst we couldn't see the herd at all, let alone the van on the far end of the porch.

Locally we got two heavy downpours and little hail. There were a few reports of tornados before the storm left the state and still some flooding of creeks and rivers yet today, but overall we were lucky this time.

Today it's a calm beautiful 78 degree day. What a wonderful contrast from yesterday!

Moving at a Fast Pace

2008-05-29T19:46:00.006-05:00

The calves learn to move fast...for two reasons. 1. When they hear "Come Esther!", that means the gate is open for the herd to move to fresh grass, and 2. they need to run fast to get out of the cows way...

When we moved the herd the other evening, Verne opened the paddock gate where they had been grazing, and I was at the top of the pasture opening the gate to a fresh paddock. I gave the call, head cow Esther heard and saw me, and they were in the mood to race up the hill. I caught photos of them coming up the hill, and then as they passed me. (I was on the other side of the fence of course.)

It's so cool to watch them move. Sometimes the herd just walks up the lane, munching grass along the way, and then other times they run full blast. It depends on the weather and their attitude.

Scratching off Winter

2008-05-22T17:02:00.005-05:00

I couldn't resist taking a snapshot of our young herd bull, Takoda while he was scratching at his old winter coat.

I've seen him use the brush a little on his head, but not like our last bull Tonka used too. Tonka would rub on that brush until his entire winter coat was gone. He was bare skin within the first two days of when we put the brush out for them.

The second photo is of Esther, our head cow giving her body a good workout on the brush. She's almost done rubbing off her old hair. With temperatures warming up to the 80s this week, the animals are ready to get down to their summer hide.

Cow Dallas had her calf this last Saturday. It seems so small compared to the older calves born a month ago. The older calves are growing their "buttons", the start of their horns that will become massive like Takoda's in just a few years.

Finally Cruising into May

2008-05-15T17:13:00.021-05:00

The wind has died down and the temperatures have finally warmed up into the low 70s. With recent rains and warm sunshine, the grass is getting tall and it's hard to see the calves if they are lying down.

The herd, both old cows and new calves, are enjoying the settled weather and growing pasture.

The cows with the oldest calves are relaxing a bit when I walk out to check the water tanks, although I still stay a good 15 feet from the fence dividing us.

It was ChaWakan and Lottie that had calves last Thursday. Since then Ida, Colorado, and Dakota have added calves to the herd too.

We'll still have more calves, but it could be into June before they are all born.

I’ll keep you updated on the pasture births as I see them.

More Buffalo Babies!

2008-05-08T20:00:00.006-05:00

Just watched the newest baby stand up! That's the second today! Both mothers are smaller in stature, so I'm guessing they are ChaWakan and Camille. Since these were three-year-old "heifers", they now are "cows" because they have given birth to a calf. I'll let you know in my next email who the new cows were.

I'm checking the pasture by binoculars these days, for both babies and water tanks. On Tuesday I was on the porch watching and waiting for Freda to give birth. She had a tough time with a three-hour breech birth last year, so I was worried about her this year. It took a while, but she had her baby at 7 minutes before 11 am, and it stood up at 7 minutes after 11 am. Fourteen minutes from birth to standing- be it a little wobbly...

About 2 pm that day I needed to check the water tank as it had a problem and was overflowing when I first checked it that morning. I turned off the electricity to the fence and started walking across the first paddock to where the tank was between two paddocks.

As I got half way across the pasture, I heard a deep rumble from Freda's throat. Bison make very distinct sounds, and this threatening call only comes when you get too close to a mother's newborn.

There were two more fences and 300 feet between me, the water tank, and Freda near by, but I turned around without taking another step. Bison have very good memories, and you never want to make a new "bad impression" with a cow.

When I made my turn, I saw the flash of another newborn starting to stand further up the pasture. Kajsa got through her delivery without me as her audience.

May Day at the Bison Farm

2008-05-01T13:24:00.005-05:00

Happy May Day!

Mom was picking wild violets from her yard when I stopped by with the newspaper this morning. That's her favorite flower from her childhood home, and she's happy that they thrive in this yard too.

My favorite flower to pick this time of year is the lilac. The original bush planted by Kajsa, who homesteaded our family farm, still blooms each year. It was featured on the front cover of Looking Back, the fourth book in my Butter in the Well book series.

As children, we'd take a May Basket of lilacs and tulips to Kajsa's daughter, Julia, who lived on the farm north of us.

Since we've had a late spring this year, the lilac bush is just starting to bloom and in perfect timing for our spring tradition of picking flowers for May Day.

The lilac scent is very powerful in my office today from the big bouquet on my desk. Spring is now officially here for me!

Update on buffalo babies! Cows Clara and Lillie added calves to the herd this week. Freda, Kajsa, and Ida look like they are next to add to the nursery.

Buffalo Babies!

2008-04-24T11:21:00.010-05:00

They're here! The first calves of the year have arrived!

Cow Hilda had her calf on Monday, Esther on Tuesday, Las Vegas on Wednesday, so the "meet and greet" herd is growing!

So tiny, yet the babies are figuring out how their legs work and are running in little circles- at only a day old.

I've been watching this action by binoculars as the herd is clear down in the southeast corner of the pasture, as far away from the Visitors Center as the cows can get. That's where they feel safest as they start having their calves.

And the calves were introduced to their first full blown prairie thunderstorm Wednesday morning, complete with heavy thunder, lightning, and rain. I noticed when the worst of the storm hit, the herd all laid down- trying to stay safe when the lightning was the worst?

But other times they grazed like there was no storm going on even though it was pouring rain. Interesting to see their reaction to the weather, and when it's at its worst, they know it.

I'm going out to the porch several times a day now to see what's going on in the far end of the pasture. Please check back next week to see how many more new calves there are!

Glad I'm not in a Tepee

2008-04-17T17:02:00.006-05:00

Weather this week has been one extreme to another. Tuesday's high winds blew down the large wooden fence gates around the Visitors Center patio that protects the big BBQ grill- which blew over too.

Yesterday was a calm beautiful day in the 70s. I enjoyed a walk through the pasture to talk to the buffalo and take photos of the herd.

Takoda was playing with the portable water tank. It's not the best thing to toss around and get upside down so that the herd doesn't have water to drink, but he wasn't listening to my telling him to "Quit!"

Eventually he backed off to let some yearling heifers come up for water.
Last night we had wind, drifts of hail stones, and a torrential downpour of rain.

I always worry about the buffalo being out in the open getting pelted by hail, but there is no shelter out in the pasture (nor would they use it anyway.)

Luckily there aren't any new baby calves yet in this bad weather.

Back to the Kansas Prairie

2008-04-11T15:39:00.007-05:00

It was a drive through the Flint Hills and time...

Wednesday my family drove to Burlington, Kansas for the funeral of my great uncle Ralph Pieratt. He would have been 97 next month, and the last living of eight children born to my great-grandparents.

Twelve nephews and nieces drove in from Nebraska, Texas, and Kansas to attend the service. After saying goodbye to him and our ancestors in the country cemetery, we drove around the sections to see the family land again.

Ralph's Pieratt family was the main characters in my Trail of Thread book series. The first generation of Pieratts left Kentucky for Kansas in 1854. The second generation (the children that were on the covered wagon trip) moved to the Flint Hills after the Civil War.

My great grandpa Ira Pieratt married German descendent Kizzie Hamman in 1894. After trying their luck in the Oklahoma Land Rush, they settled back in Kansas and built a homestead from scratch.

They raised a family on this land, and welcomed three generations of their descendents for family reunions until they were in their 90s, and had to move off their farm. No one ever lived in the house again. It was burned down and turned back to prairie in the 1980s.

On this spring day (except for the fence and gate), it probably looks like the same wind-swept prairie that Ira and Kizzie walked on as they dreamed of their new homestead.

I'm just glad it's back to grass and not a shopping mall...

Pasture Burning

2008-04-03T13:49:00.013-05:00

The wind was going down at 5 pm last night, so Verne and Dyllan started the Eastern Gammagrass on fire to get rid of the old grass clumps. We have a planted pasture of it on the northend of our land.

Eastern Gammagrass is native to Kansas, and the bison have eaten it for centuries. It looks like big clumps of Pampas Grass, and can get three to four foot tall. It has a wide leaf and is sweet to the taste. When Kansas was fenced by the homesteaders, cattle liked it too and ate it down to the ground, which killed it out in most areas.

Because bison eat and roam, and this type of grass needs 6-8 inches of the crown left on the plant to rejeuvenate, it thrived on the prairie with the bison's grazing pattern.

The goal was to burn the old growth off, leaving fresh new grass to come up from the ground. Old dried stems can poke the animal's eye as they try to get the fresh stems, and it just tastes better not to have old grass in a mouthful.

From the picture you can see Verne is equipped with a water tank on his back with a short pump to dose fire, the red fire starter, and the rubber flap to hit out stray fires. (The Visitors Center is in the background.)

I was driving the pickup with the big water tank in the back, and Dyllan was manning the hose from that tank. They burned a strip west along the driveway and north along the fence and road ditch first to form a fire break, then went to the south end of the pasture and started the main fire.

From the second photo taken this morning, only part of the pasture burned as the wind died down and the fire could not jump from clump to clump in some places.

Verne had planned to burn again tonight to get the rest of the clumps, but we're getting a light rain today so the grass will be too damp.

Most people don't realize what we do to maintain pasture... to graze the buffalo... to provide meat for our customers. This is all to mimic what nature did centuries ago when prairie fires cleared the dead winter grass for the bison's spring food.

Quiet Pasture

2008-03-28T14:11:00.005-05:00

The cows move silently now past the Visitors Center. There is no grunting because there are no calves in the herd to keep track of at the moment.

Sorting last Friday went safe and smoothly with the new pen gates Verne built. Some of the old cows picked on the younger ones, but that’s their nature when confined, so we sorted and moved the cows back out to the pasture as quickly as possible.

The calves were checked by the vet and tagged; staying in the big pens this week to be sure all are sound and healthy after the sort. The heifer calves will move back to the cow herd this weekend, and the bull calves will move over to the bull herd until they move to their summer pasture in May.

The cows come in to get water and check the calves once a day, but the calves are weaned and the cows are satisfied they are okay by themselves. They prefer to spend their day eating and lounging in the triticale paddock.

Think of the calves as kids going off to college. They are on their own now, but you still check on them now and then…

Sorting Buffalo

2008-03-20T15:33:00.008-05:00

Welding, painting, and greasing has been the agenda for Verne and his help this past week to get ready for tomorrow’s calf sorting.

Before the cows start giving birth this next month, we sort off the calves born last spring from the cow herd. We want to do it before any newborns are added to the herd as this could be dangerous for them.

Bison can get aggressive very quickly when they feel cornered, and a little baby could get run over and injured in the mayhem.

Once the calves are sorted from the herd, they run through the work chute to get their ear tag for identification. Bull calves will move over to the “Meat and Eat” bull herd, and the heifer calves will go back to the “Meet and Greet” cow herd (the group our Visitor Center guests see on our tram tour).

So how do the top three mentioned items go with wooly fast-footed animals? We have to be prepared with safe pens, gate latches that move freely, and latch tight when they swung around to close off a pen of animals.

After Verne’s accident with a gate that didn’t hold last June (he and cow Annie ended up in the same spot together), he's going to be sure everything is in top shape for the sorting.

Verne has added a new steel “cat walk” to be above the animals in one area, and new steel bar gates in the middle sorting circle so he can be behind it when sorting the cows.

Please wish us a safe sorting and calm cows tomorrow!