Bison Farm Diary

Goings on at a Kansas buffalo farm.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Itty Bitty Buffalo Baby

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.

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posted by Bison Farm Diary at 2:21 PM 0 Comments

Friday, June 6, 2008

Watching the Weather


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!

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posted by Bison Farm Diary at 3:22 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, May 8, 2008

More Buffalo Babies!


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.

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posted by Bison Farm Diary at 8:00 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Buffalo Babies!


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!

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posted by Bison Farm Diary at 11:21 AM 0 Comments