Bison burgers, Buff dogs…bison's becoming the 'other' red meat for health conscious Americans. Mainstreet Radio's Marisa Helms reports that cattle ranchers across Minnesota are starting to raise the nearly once extinct animal in increasing numbers. Some of these new bison ranchers try to mimic the natural prairie setting, grazing their herds on native grasses.
MARISA HELMS: The J & L Bison Ranch is tucked away on the prairies of Kandiyohi County in central Minnesota.
LEILA ARNDT: This is the pasture for the buffies. And we rode--
MARISA HELMS: Rancher Leila Arndt drives her blue sedan out into a field of high grasses. She's meeting up with husband John, who has a small school bus full of tourists, parked in the middle of a bison herd.
LEILA ARNDT: He loves the buffalo. When he gets talking buffalo--
MARISA HELMS: From the driver's seat, John talks to his guests about reintroducing bison to the Great Plains.
JOHN ARNDT: We're bringing this great animal back is the fact that it is a health food. It's a health food. Otherwise, you might as well eat beef. It's lower in cholesterol than fish and poultry, very high in protein, very low in saturated--
MARISA HELMS: Outside the bus, about 50 buffalo rock back and forth as they breathe deeply in the hot sun. The herd will graze in this pasture by the lake for 30 days until they're moved to a nearby 60-acre meadow. Moving the herd around the ranch ensures it won't deplete the grasses or the land. It's called management intensive grazing.
The State Department of Agriculture likes what the Arndts are doing. Minnesota's Sustainable Agriculture Program has given the J&L Ranch a $9,000 grant to experiment with new, environmentally friendly farming practices. Wayne Munson is the program's grant administrator. He says bison ranching is environmentally sound because the animals have naturally practiced management intensive grazing since they first lived wild on the prairies hundreds of years ago.
WAYNE MUNSON: They were roamers. So they would roam all over the prairie. I don't know what their distance was between each herd. But they would always be moving towards new grasses. And as they roamed, they would tear up the ground pretty good. But that actually strengthened the grass. And then they would come back even stronger after that.
MARISA HELMS: Reintroducing native prairie grasses is also part of the Arndts' goal for the J&L Ranch. They've already introduced cool-season prairie grasses, like timothy, brome grass, and orchard grass. Grant money will help plant big bluestem and switchgrass, both warm-season grasses. The Ag Department's Wayne Munson says combining grasses allows for year-round grazing, which is environmentally and economically beneficial.
WAYNE MUNSON: Having the farm in grass all the time really protects the soil from erosion. It allows the forages to really be able to produce a lot over time. It lowers the costs to the farmer of having to have lots of farm machinery, to actually go out and harvest the grass and bring it in and then feed it to the animals. This way, the animals can go out there and actually do the harvesting themselves.
MARISA HELMS: More and more ranchers are turning over some of their acreage to buffalo. Media mogul Ted Turner's ranches in Montana and New Mexico are the most notable examples of the buffalo boom. But smaller herds are cropping up all over the country.
Some say that buffalo ranchers work half as much as beef operations for twice the profit. Bison are less labor intensive than cattle. They prefer to graze on pasture land all year-round. The hardy animals do fine even in bitter winter weather and will dig through snow to eat the grasses underneath. And as for profit, one head of cattle sells for about $700. But one buffalo can sell for up to $5,000.
But this kind of profit-driven market worries some Native Americans. Louis LaRose is from the Nebraska Winnebago tribe and is board president of the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, the ITBC. He says there's some concern among ITBC members that non-Indian bison ranchers are exploiting the animals, raising them in feedlots like cattle, and ignoring the sacredness and majesty of the bison.
LOUIS LAROSE: In the methods that they use, there's no consideration for the relationship of bison to the earth and the relationship of bison to tribal people. They shoot them in the head. They destroy the buffalo skull for use in ceremonies. They take the horns off.
MARISA HELMS: But LaRose says he can't find much fault with the Arndts' J&L Ranch. LaRose is putting together a bison restoration curriculum at the United Tribes Technical College in Nebraska and is interested in sharing information with all kinds of ranchers about how they operate.
At the J&L Ranch in Central Minnesota, the great American bison is on a pedestal. The Arndts live, breathe, eat, and even wear buffalo. When guests come for a tour, Leila Arndt wears her buffalo-patterned shirt, hat, and earrings. And if you're hungry, she'll feed you a buff dog or burger. The Arndts are part of a growing movement of those who believe there are economic, historic, and spiritual benefits in restoring the great American bison back to the prairie.
This is your retirement business, right?
LEILA ARNDT: We're still searching to find out what retirement means.
MARISA HELMS: I don't think you two will ever retire.
I'm Marisa Helms, Minnesota Public Radio, Collegeville.
In 2008, Minnesota's voters passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution: to protect drinking water sources; to protect, enhance, and restore wetlands, prairies, forests, and fish, game, and wildlife habitat; to preserve arts and cultural heritage; to support parks and trails; and to protect, enhance, and restore lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater.
Efforts to digitize this initial assortment of thousands of historical audio material was made possible through the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. A wide range of Minnesota subject matter is represented within this collection.
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