March 07 newsletter - Western Bison Association

Bison Review
October 2007
A Publication of the Western Bison Association
$3000 In Cash Awards For Stampede Winners!
Western Bison Association is blessed with very generous members that continue to contribute
to the Stampede being the success that it is. This year, Michael and Kathleen Gear, Red Canyon
Ranch, have donated $1000 towards the winner of Grand Champion Female and $500 for the
winner of the Reserve Grand Champion Female. Matching their contribution for the bull side are
Rex and Ronda Snyder of Snyder Land and Development.
Kathleen and
Michael Gear,
left and Rex and
Ronda Snyder,
right, have generously donated
cash awards for
our Wild West
Show Grand and
Reserve
Male
and
Female
Champions this
year!
BRING ON THE COMPETITION!!! Thank you for the incentives!
“Doc Ken” Throlson, DVM Speaking At Wild West Stampede
By Susan Maass
their first buffalo in 1973 as a hobby,
The Western Bison Association is very
which turned into a full time occupation
privileged to have Kenneth Throlson,
in 1981. In 2006, he leased out his buffaDVM, New Rockford, ND as our keynote
lo ranch but continues consulting. They
speaker at the 9th annual Wild West
continue to live on the ranch surrounded
Stampede Show and Sale in Ogden, Utah,
by buffalo. Doc and Marlys have six chilNovember
29
through
dren and six grandchildren.
December 1. Don’t miss out on
Marlys has recently retired
this great opportunity! Doc Ken
from teaching school.
will be speaking on Friday afterAs a veterinarian, Doc
noon at 1:00 p.m. His topics will
experimented on his own
be, “Diseases and Nutrition”,
herds with medications and
followed by a question and
various handling methods
answer period. We are expecting
and in general if anyone
from past experience with this
needed advice, Doc was the
very knowledgeable man that
one to call, always willing to
your interests and his answers
share his experiences. His
will lead to a full afternoon.
great admiration for this ani“Doc Ken”, as he is affecmal shone through his every
tionately known in the buffalo
explanation for what to do or
“Doc Ken” Throlson, not do. For years, he donated
business, grew up on a farm in
North Dakota raising livestock DVM will be our guest his time to speaking to proand growing grain. He attended speaker this year!
ducers and frequently spoke
St. Olaf College in Northfield,
on the twelve months of the
MN from 1960-62 and then joined the
year with buffalo, charting out what one
Peace Corp in 1962, spending two years
should do year around.
building YMCA’ s in Venezuela. He then
Doc Ken is well known for establishreturned to NDSU and later to Iowa State
ing a number of bloodlines early on, most
University where he received his DVM
notably his M-line animals, under the
degree in 1969. He established a veteriranch name of KenMar Buffalo. He would
nary practice in New Rockford, ND in
run sires of the same background, often
1969 and operated it until 1981.
half brothers, on daughters with known
He and his wife, Marlys, purchased
sires, in order to develop a more meat
worthy bison and while this was not a single sire situation, Doc always knew the
dams and could more knowingly control
his outcomes. In 1992 he was instrumental in founding the North American Bison
Cooperative (NABC). Many US and
Canadian members continue to use the
NABC plant for processing and subsequent marketing of bison meat.
In 1987, the American Bison
Association honored Doc Ken for his contributions to the industry with the establishment of the Dr. Kenneth Throlson
Scholarship Fund which members donated to for many years until it became a
foundation and was secure enough financially in 2000 to begin awarding scholarships to students working toward veterinary or animal husbandry degrees. The
foundation also promotes bison research
and education projects. To date, 15 students have received grants and three more
will be awarded this October. The
National Bison Association manages the
foundation and donations can be made
through the NBA.
We want to remind you that if you have
not had the opportunity to meet Doc Ken,
he is quite a character, serious but humorous, infectious with inspiration and as
dedicated to buffalo as you will ever find.
See you in Ogden
PAGE
2
October 2007
PRESIDENT
John Painter • Montoso Bison Company
Painter Construction Company
PO Box 61 • Tres Piedras, NM 87577
(505) 770-7751
(505) 758-5561 Fax
VICE PRESIDENT
Ronde Snyder
Snyder Land & Development
HC 66, Box 2 • Lyman, WY 82937
(307) 786-4001
(307) 786-4004 Fax
[email protected]
SECRETARY-TREASURER
Glenda Haack • Wild West Bison Ranch
10711 N. Market St.
Mead, WA 99021-9502
(509) 464-1664 • (509) 467-0158
(509) 464-3106 Fax
[email protected]
PAST PRESIDENT
Susan Maass • Colorado Bison Co.
PO Box 57 • Union Center, SD 57787
(605) 985-5400 Phone/Fax
(605) 515-0318 Cell
[email protected]
DIRECTORS
John Russell • Rocky Hill Bison Ranch
3525 Fawn Creek Path
Austin, TX 78746
(512) 329-9590 Phone/Fax
[email protected]
Dan Martin • Lay Valley Bison Ranch
19727 Country Rd. #17
Craig, CO 81825
(970) 824-9207
Scott Butcher • Diamond Tail Ranch
20579 NCR 103
Jelm, WY 82063
(970) 435-5775 Phone/Fax
Vaughn Scott • J Bar S Ranch
6201 Highway 20
Ukiah, CA 95482
(707) 485-0830
[email protected]
Corey Snyder • North Slope Buffalo Ranch
39955 Business Loop I-80
Lyman, WY 82937
(307) 786-2003 Phone
(307) 786-4004 Fax
[email protected]
Boyd Meyer • Cold Creek Buffalo Co.
PO Box 82
Windsor, CO 80550
(970) 396-2249 Phone
(970) 484-9422 Fax
[email protected]
Bison Review
A Publication of the Western Bison Association
From The President’s Desk by John Painter
It was good to see all of you that made
it to the International Bison Conference
in Rapid City. I tore out of here at the last
moment and made a
whirlwind trip up there. It
cost me a couple of big,
fat speeding tickets,
which was the negative
side. They had a good
turnout with a number of
very good speakers. It
was good to see other
buffalo people from both
sides of the border that I
had not seen for a number of years. We had
some good conversations.
The day we went to
Deadwood
for
the
parade, I bumped into Susan Maass
along with Gail and Dave Griffin.
Someone had told the Griffins to try out
Jakes restaurant. We ended up there in
late afternoon and had a wonderful meal.
Jakes is owned by Kevin Costner and his
brother runs it. The food was terrific. I
had a buffalo steak. The presentation was
eloquent and the service outstanding. If
any of you pass through Deadwood, I
would highly recommend it.
I hope to see a lot of you in Ogden.
With the cash prizes being offered for the
four top animals, I expect to see some
excellent quality buffalo. We have a
good program lined up with Dr. Kenneth
Throlson, the Gears, Boyd Meyer and
Gail Griffin all speaking. Hopefully the
weather will cooperate.
Also, we will get back on track with
our education efforts this year. We have
over 100 school children scheduled to come out and see the
buffalo, with the Gears giving
the students a history lesson on
them. They will then be treated
to the real thing - buffalo meat
for lunch.
There will be a much better
organized effort to give the general public educational tours of
the buffalo on Friday and
Saturday morning.
This is the last time I will be
writing this column because by
the next issue of Bison Review
you will have a new president
and I will be off the hook. I
would like to thank the membership for
the privilege of allowing me to serve as
your president for the last two years. I
wish that I would have had more time
that I could devote to WBA to do some
other things for the buffalo industry. But
I don’t think one ever has enough time to
devote to all the things they would like to
accomplish. So you do the best you can
for the allotted time. The WBA is made
up of a great herd of people and I have
really enjoyed my association with
everyone. May it continue to be a beacon
of light for the buffalo industry.
Thanks to all of you. I wish our new
incoming president the best and I will
support their efforts to keep the WBA a
vibrant organization.
Marriott Ogden Will Be Our Host Hotel
Once again, the host hotel for the
Western Bison Association’s 9th Annual
Wild West Buffalo Stampede Show and
Sale is the Marriott Ogden, located at
247 West 24th Street. If you are coming
from the north on I-15, take Exit 346
east, which is 21st Street or Utah 104. If
you are coming from the south on I-15,
take Exit 345 east, which is 24th Street.
Reservations must be made by
November 12, 2007 in order to get the
WBA discount rate of $62 per night, plus
tax. Reservations may be made by calling 1-888-825-3163. The regular hotel
number is (801) 827-1190. Tell the reservationist that you are with the Western
Bison Association and the booking code
is “BISA” for the WBA rate.
If you want to book online and get the
group discount go to www.ogdenmarriott.com. Put in the dates you want to
stay and go down to the block that says
group code and enter BISBISA and it
will bring up the WBA rate of $62 per
night.
There are fancier rooms available for
a higher rate. Anyone wanting to upgrade
will need to work that out with the hotel
on your own.
For those of you who have not been
here before, the Marriott is located
downtown in the old Ogden Historical
District. You are within walking distance
of many shops, art galleries and numerous other restaurants.
The Golden Spike Event Center is
located several miles north of the hotel
and is easily accessible by traveling several of Ogden’s regular streets without
having to get back on the interstate.
If you have any hotel problems,
please call John Painter at (505) 7707751.
Bison Review
October 2007
A Publication of the Western Bison Association
PAGE
3
2007 Wild West Stampede Is Right Around The Corner
It won’t be long before the 9th Annual
Wild West Buffalo Stampede Show and
Sale will be upon us. The 2007 dates are
November 29 and 30 and December 1.
Once again, the show and sale will be
held at the Golden Spike Event Center in
Ogden, Utah.
Show and Sale information, along with
entry forms, is enclosed with this newsletter. This information will also be available
on the WBA web site at: www.westernbison.org.
The pen of two yearling heifers class
has been retained again this year. We look
forward to seeing some nice, uniform
heifers in the class. You can have two
entries in this class (four animals total) for
“show only” or for “show and sale” but
no “sale only” entries. You can also have
two entries in the yearling heifer class.
Anyone entering either the yearling heifer
class or the pen of two yearling heifers
class, or both classes, can bring up to an
additional five yearling heifers in the
“sale only” category.
The three and four year old cow class
is being retained. Like last year, the three
and four year old cow class will accept
only “show only” or “show and sale” animals. There will be no “sale only” animals allowed in this class.
Like last year, you can bring two
entries per class as “show only” or “show
and sale” animals and up to a total of five
“sale only” animals in a class with the
exceptions stated above.
A consignor will still be able to send in
the Alternate Entry Form and enter alternate animals in a class if there is still
room to fill a class.
In the two year old bull class and the
two year old bred heifer class, bulls and
bred heifers will be allowed to have four
(4) fully erupted incisors. This will have
to be noted on the paperwork filled out by
your veterinarian. If a fifth baby tooth is
missing, the animals will be disqualified
from the class.
Buyers paying with a check will have
to have an irrevocable letter of credit from
a bank guaranteeing any check that is
written to pay for animals. The sale will
Catalog Advertising Remember to do...
For the sale catalog this year, anyone
wishing to do so may place a business
card size ad in the catalog for $25 or a full
page for $150. A half page ad is also
available for $75.
If you would like to place an advertisement, you will need to get the ad size
and layout to Susan Maass at Colorado
Bison Co. The deadline for the ads will be
November 3 for ads Susan will build and
November 17 for camera ready ads.
When sending in your advertising payment, please make checks out to the
Western Bison Association. Send payment to Sec/Treasurer Glenda Haack and
ad materials to: Susan Maass, Colorado
Bison Co., PO Box 57, Union Center, SD,
57787 or email to [email protected]. If
you need further information or have any
questions, contact Susan at (605) 9855400 phone and fax.
Remember to pack your Fun Auction
items and your white shirts! Due to the
popularity of the shirts, we may have
more shirts available with Western Bison
on the sleeves. Ron and Jud will be presiding over the fun auction again this
year, so plan on a blast of fun!
Listen to KSL while you are in Ogden,
1160 AM and 102.7 FM
Radio advertising will again be sponsored by Red Canyon Ranch, Michael and
Kathleen Gear. We found this form of
advertising to be very good for the sale
last year, so all of you new consignors
wondering if you should head out to
Ogden, know that we are making the Wild
West Stampede a notable event in Utah!
The Gears do a fine interview with the
station informing the public about bison
and the Stampede.
continue to take Visa and Mastercard
credit cards. No other credit cards will be
taken. The 3.5 percent that the WBA has
to pay to the credit card companies for
usage will be added on to the buyer’s total
to cover this expense.
Please read the health requirements
very CAREFULLY, as this always causes
a few problems when people show up and
their animals are not in compliance with
these requirements.
Once again, expect to see a lot of
excellent quality animals available for
sale due to all the great breeders in the
western United States. It will be a great
place to pick up animals to enhance your
herds. The entry deadline will be
November 2, 2007.
We look forward to a great show and
sale, seeing everyone and having a great
time! If you have questions, call John
Painter at (505) 770-7751. We try to make
this show and sale as user-friendly as possible for both the consignors and buyers.
Thanks to all of you who support it.
PAGE
4
October 2007
Bison Review
A Publication of the Western Bison Association
Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch
By John Painter
As the late days of summer and the
beginning of fall appear, cloaked with yellow and purple colors here at the Cerro
San Cristobal Ranch, Susan reminded me
of my own baling twine stories (See her
article in the July 2007 issue of Bison
Review, Buffalo, Chickens, and Indians).
Here we feed a mixture of large hay bales,
4x4, 3x4, or 3x3s, depending on what is
available. I cut and remove all the string
except two strands so that the buffalo
don’t scatter the hay out so much until
they have eaten most of the bale. I will
quite often have a buffalo show up with a
string around its horns or neck. Generally,
I can get up close enough to at least cut
the string if I cannot remove it altogether.
In our rough country of sage brush and
rocks, the string will also wear in half in a
few days.
But once, like the Maass’, we had a
cow get so tangled up in string that she
could not move. I managed to get her in
the chute and cut all the string. However,
in this case, the other cows had not picked
on her. How she got herself into such a fix
I will never know, although she sort of has
the personality that is conducive to getting
into fixes.
Also, from time to time, we have fed
round bales. The string tied around them
is always a mess to cut or remove.
Somehow, some of that string got tangled
around one of the rear axles of the back
hoe. Due to the fenders and platform, it is
hard to see these axles. The string probably went unnoticed for years. One day I
heard something squeal and then go pop.
Next thing there was transmission oil all
over the place. Even though there was not
much string involved, it had worked its
way into the oil seal and ruined it. Without
a proper seal, dirt and debris got into the
bearing and ruined it, which in turn ruined
the wheel shaft. In short, it was an expensive lesson on keeping an eye on string
wrapped around shafts.
This all triggered my fond memories
about the summers I spent in hay fields
growing up on our family ranch near
Greeley, Colorado. When I was eight or
nine years old, I could not wait to be old
enough to join the hay crew. Until I was
ten, I had to weed the flower beds in the
yard and mow all the lawns on the ranch,
which I hated doing. I wanted to run a
tractor. I would manage to fanangle to
help do maintenance on the hay machinery as much as I could talk my way into it.
I had driven tractors since I was seven
years old and thought it was so cool to do
so.
Finally, when I turned eleven, I was
allowed to be on the hay crew full time.
That year I was to run the twenty four foot
dump rake. We had two on the ranch.
Mind you, this was in the day just before
hydraulics became available. These twenty four foot rakes were made of two old
twelve foot horse-drawn rakes that had
been put together and converted to the
basic hydraulics of the time (which consisted of wheel break cylinders) and then
attached to a tractor to pull it. It was a feat
to get that twenty four foot rake through a
twelve or fourteen foot gate.
Anyway, the one I was to run was
attached to an International Model A tractor. I don’t think the steering gear box had
ever had any grease changed or maintained in it. It was the hardest steering
tractor I ever encountered. That, coupled
with the 100 degree temperatures of a
northeastern Colorado hayfield, I did not
survive the job that year. I was replaced.
We had another twenty four foot dump
rake that was pulled by a concoction
which we called the jeep rake. It was
made up of an International rear end and a
Chevrolet front end, with a Studebaker
transmission attached to an old Army four
cylinder jeep engine with a great big combine-sized radiator on it. It could go down
the road at 35 mph. That was the rake I
wanted to run. But my brother-in-law did
not want to hook it up that year because it
needed a lot of work. The engine burned
oil, three quarts a day to be exact. There
were no rings left in it. You talk about blue
smoke and pollution .
You could see that
machine two miles
away. However, by the
middle of the hay season
the other rake could not
keep up so he was forced
to get the jeep rake running. When the other
rake was behind, I got to
run this rake. I was in
seventh heaven. I could
rake circles around the
other raker. That winter
the jeep engine was
overhauled and the next summer when I
was twelve, I became the chief raker for
the next several years on that rake. As
time went on, the ranch purchased a new
thirty foot hydraulic rake made by the
Valley Company in Nebraska. It was a
great improvement over the old rakes, but
I missed that old “jeep rake”. It had been
a ‘cool’ thing to run.
Our ranch hay fields were like the ones
over in the Nebraska sandhills. Most of
the meadows were sub-irrigated by a
meandering creek that ran through the
ranch. We also had dry meadows made up
of sand grasses. They produced wonderful
quality feed. The grasses were short
prairie grasses so you had to use a dump
rake to make bigger windrows for the
baler. There were no windrowers in those
days. They came along at the end of my
haying career. In our best meadow, if
there was good spring moisture, the grass
would get so tall that we would have to
use a side delivery rake instead of the
dump rake.
That first year in the hay field, I also
convinced my brother-in-law to let me
mow a little when they were cutting hay
behind a hill off the road where my mother could not see me. She was absolutely
petrified that I would get my feet and
hands cut off in a mower bar. It did happen to people. Fortunately, I had good
guidance about safety and never had a
mishap. My ultimate goal was to become
the head mower. That was the person that
had status in the hay field. We usually ran
four or five mowers with seven foot bars
so we could cut a lot of hay in a day.
However, someone always seemed to be
broken down. Broken pitman sticks, missing ledger plates, messed up sickles.
When a mower hit a broken dump rake
tooth from the year before it sure could
mess up your mower bar and sickle.
After two or three years of raking I
worked my way up to being the lead
mower. I loved that job and did it until we
changed the whole method of stacking
hay bales. There was competition among
the mowers as to who was the most
skilled at turning “square corners” so that
you did not leave a strip of uncut grass
behind you, which meant stopping the
mower, backing up and cleaning up the
turn. That was a no, no. Also, you could
not pull out on a corner and turn a wide
turn and come back in to start cutting on
the other side again. It wasted to much
time and fuel. This became very challenging when you were cutting six foot high
sweet clover which would happen some
years when we had a wet spring. If you
did not have your mowing act together
Continued on page 7
Bison Review
October 2007
A Publication of the Western Bison Association
PAGE
5
WESTERN BISON ASSOCIATION
9TH ANNUAL WILD WEST STAMPEDE SHOW & SALE
GOLDEN SPIKE EVENT CENTER, OGDEN, UT
November 29 – December 1, 2007 • Host Hotel: Ogden Marriott 801-627-1190
Schedule of Events
Tuesday, November 27
2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. - Unloading bison.
Wednesday, November 28
8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. – Unloading bison.
Thursday, November 29
8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Unloading bison.
1:00 p.m. - Judging of bison begins with judges Paul Lyman and David Griffin
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. - Board of Directors meeting, Auction Arena Building lobby. Members are welcome.
5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. - Consignors and Buyers meeting in the Cottonwood Room at the Ogden Marriott Hotel.
Members are welcome.
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. - Taco Buffet for Consignors, Members and Buyers. Annual meeting to include:
• Elections for Officers and Board members.
• Western Town Hall meeting to discuss regional and national relationships. Facilitated by Gail Griffin, National
Bison Association Vice President.
• Boyd Meyer will be speaking on state of the industry
Bar sponsored by Michael and Kathleen Gear, Red Canyon Ranch.
Taco Bar sponsored by Bridger Valley Buffalo, Rex and Ronda Snyder.
Friday, November 30
8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. - Vendors set up in Auction Arena lobby.
9.00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. - Tours of the bison pens for adults and children.
9:00 a.m. – Children’s tour of the bison will start at the Golden Spike Auction Arena Building where Michael and
Kathleen Gear will be speaking to them about bison. After the tour there will be a bison burger waiting for them.
Burgers sponsored by John Russell, Rocky Hill Bison.
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. - Lunch available in lobby of the Auction Arena Building. Bridger Valley Buffalo providing the
meat.
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. - Kenneth Throlson, DVM will be speaking on ‘Diseases & Nutrition’ with questions and
answers to follow at the Golden Spike Auction Arena Building.
5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. - Wet Bar, Cypress A & B Room. Ogden Marriott Hotel. Bar sponsored by Marland and Glenda
Ray, Wild West Bison Ranch.
6:30 p.m. - Dinner served for the Awards Banquet. Guest speaker, Gail Griffin, Vice President of the National Bison
Association, will be updating us on national issues and events concerning bison producers and how the NBA is
involved. Awards will be presented followed by the Fun Auction
Steaks donated by Diamond Tail Ranch, Mike and Renee Duncan and Scott and Bobbi Butcher
Saturday, December 1
Food Concession open all day at the Auction Arena Building
8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. - Tours of the bison pens for adults and children
8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. – Judge’s Comments at the Golden Spike Auction Arena Building
9:30 a.m. - Bison 101 with Paul Lyman
9:30 a.m. – Adult tours of bison pens
12:00 noon – Sale starts with Bradeen Auctions conducting the sale.
PAGE
6
October 2007
Bison Review
A Publication of the Western Bison Association
Meet The 2007 Stampede Judges
PAUL LYMAN
Paul Lyman will be joining us for a
second year as one of our judges and we
are not only pleased that he accepted our
invitation, but we are also impressed that
he became a
Gold
Trophy
Show and Sale
judge and will be
judging
this
January
in
D e n v e r .
Congratulations
Paul!
When
you’re
good,
news travels.
Paul, and his
wife Dixie, own
Riverbend Bison in Richfield, Utah under
the herd prefix of UTAH, established in
1994 with foundation stock from Bar X
Ranch, Blue Mountain, Colorado Bison
Co. and Teepee Ring Bison. The Lymans
have around 70 head.
In 1996, Lymans won Grand
Champion Female at the National Bison
Association’s Gold Trophy Show and Sale
with UTAH Big Fort Peck, a female they
had purchased in Fort Peck, Montana.
Paul Lyman, Esquire, is currently a
Juvenile Court judge in Richfield, having
practiced law privately for many years.
He is a past-president of the National
Bison Association, having also served as a
regional director, secretary and vice-pres-
ident of the NBA. Paul has also served as
a board member for the WBA, helping us
during the period of time that we were
moving the Stampede from Reno to
Ogden.
Due to the popularity of Bison 101 last
year, Paul has offered to conduct this
workshop again this year on Saturday
morning at the Auction Arena building.
Anyone interested in getting into the buffalo business or converting your operation
to buffalo, join Paul on Saturday at 9:30
a.m.
DAVE GRIFFIN
Dave has been actively involved in the
bison industry for the last 15 years. He has
served as Minnesota Buffalo
Association’s (MnBA) Show and
Sale Chair for the past five years,
while energetically volunteering
since MnBA launched their auctions
in 1995.
Dave, along with his wife Gail,
own and operate Rockie Hill Bison
in Winona, Minnesota. They are
currently running 75 head. Their
female herd consists of a wide
diversity of breeding stock genetics
selected on confirmation, including purchasing the herd that initiated the
Throlson-Sarazin herd years ago, blended
with animals from other midwest herds
that are augmented by bulls from NBA’s
Gold Trophy Show and Sale.
Rockie Hill’s stock quality has consistently been recognized through trophy
winning animals at Iowa Bison
Association,
Minnesota
Buffalo
Association and Wisconsin Bison
Producers Association shows, including
the honor of Producer of the Year in
Minnesota and Wisconsin. On several
occasions, their consigned bull calves
have received Reserve Champion while
competing against Yearling and Two Year
Old Bull classes. At Iowa’s last sale, they
consigned three heifer calves and in a
class of 24 won all three offered trophies.
Gail gives Dave full credit, as he is the
one who selects the young stock consigned to the shows.
Griffin’s also operate a
wholesale and retail meat
business; entertain a significant number of tourists
and school children at their
farm, all in the interest of
promoting the raising of
bison and the fabulous, flavorful meat. Dave and
Gail’s Rockie Hill Bison
was recognized in the
recently
published
Minnesota’s Treasures coffee table book.
Dave is honored to have been asked to
judge, along with Paul Lyman, the 2007
Wild West Buffalo Stampede Show and
Sale.
Meet The 2007 Board of Directors Nominees
Thursday evening, November 29, 2007
will be our 9th annual WBA general meeting and time for election of new officers
and board members.
John Painter has served two years as
president and will be moving to the pastpresident position on the board. Ronda
Snyder, current vice-president, is nominated for president and Boyd Meyer, currently on the board, is nominated for vice
president. Glenda Haack is nominated for
continuing as secretary-treasurer. We will
be filling Boyd Meyer’s board position
with one year left in the term and John
Gerrells is nominated for that position.
Dave Wood is nominated to fill the board
position of Dan Martin and Corey Snyder
and John Russell are nominated to run
again in their board positions.
Nominations will be accepted from the
floor during the meeting. Scott Butcher
and Vaughn Scott remain on the board
with one year left in their terms. We really appreciate the time and contributions
everyone has made to serving the Western
Bison Association by serving on the
board.
Ronda Snyder
Dave Wood
Boyd Meyer
John Gerrells
Corey Snyder
Glenda Haack
John Russell
Bison Review
October 2007
A Publication of the Western Bison Association
PAGE
7
Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch
Continued from page 4
you could have an awful mess with a
balled up mower bar that you had to get
off the tractor and spend a lot of time
cleaning out heavy clover and grass. It
would often cause your mower to break
away, which it was designed to do, creating even more of a mess to clean up. Lord
help you if you got that clover wrapped
around the mower drive shaft. Within
minutes it could be wrapped so tight and
get so hot that it could start a fire. You
needed to keep a very sharp pocket knife
with you at all times. That stuff got so
tight it would take you an hour to clean up
your drive shaft if you got a really big wad
wrapped around it.
We had a conglomeration of tractors
that we used for mowing. You mowed in
first or second gear depending on how
thick the grass was or how rough the
meadow. We had some very rough meadows. Some tractors mowed a little faster
than others, so when you had a mower
catch up to you, you pulled out at the next
corner to let them go ahead.
There was also a challenge to see who
could go the longest without stopping or
getting off their tractor and mower. It was
taken to the extremes now and then by
someone standing up in the tractor and
relieving themselves without having to
stop and get down. We were all teenage
boys full of ourselves at the time.
I started out mowing on a John Deere
M tractor with a John Deere No. 5 mower.
It was a relatively modern piece of
machinery for us at the time and it had a
built in hydraulic system for lifting the
mower bar and an electric starter. The
John Deere No. 5 mower was probably
the best mower on the market in those
years. The JD M had been developed for
the cotton fields of the south. It was comparable in size to the International A
which we also had with a JD No. 5
mower.
When I started mowing, our mower
battery was made up of four old
McCormick-Derring F-12s. These tractors had no amenities. They were hand
crank to start. If you didot know how to
properly crank a tractor you could get a
broken arm or bruised hand from that
crank kicking back. No hydraulics. The
mower was manual lift on the bar which
was heavy. Again, this was an incentive to
get your mowing act together so you didot
have to lift that bar often.
As my haying years progressed, that
tractor got replaced with International H
tractors and newer versions of John Deere
mowers - as I recall they were No. 9 and
No. 10 mowers. However, I kept one of
the old F-12s and a No. 5 mower which I
could out mow all the newer mowers
with.
Because of the native grasses and sand
on the ranch, we had to rebuild mower
bars twice during the hay season. We
changed sickles twice a day also because
they quickly became very dull under our
haying conditions. Nothing like cutting
alfalfa where some farmers I don’t think
ever changed sickles or rebuilt bars.
I always hated dealing with a rebuilt
bar, as we always had to use a crowbar
and hammer to get a sickle in and out of a
bar. The hired man who rebuilt the bars
always used a hammer and crowbar to
beat everything into submission. He had
worked on the ranch for years. He tried to
be a mechanic but wasn’t very good at it.
He had been in D-Day on the Normandy
beaches and suffered from shell shock.
You never wanted to walk up behind him
unannounced. He also had a very bad temper that could flare easily. But most of the
time he had the disposition of a pussy cat.
Anyway it dawned on me one day that
these bars shouldn't be so hard to get a
sickle in and out of. So I got the manual of
the No. 5 mower and how to rebuild bars.
I set about doing one myself and followed
all the directions in the book on how to
adjust guards, etc. Lo and behold, I got
my mower bar to work perfectly. You
could easily get a sickle in and out without a hammer and a crowbar. I had the
sickle adjusted so the ledger plates and the
sickle sections ran smoothly over each
other with just the right clearance between
them. My, what a nice clean cut they made
on the grass. The whole mower worked
with much less stress and strain. This particular bar got put on that old F-12 with
the No. 5 mower, but it was about this
time that the family, for various reasons,
decided to put the ranch up for sale so my
haying career was about to end.
My brother-in-law, who was about fifteen years older than me, used to talk
about mowing with horse drawn mowers.
He had grown up using teams of horses
pulling the old five foot bar mowers as a
kid. He really liked mowing with them
and missed those days. I remember about
twenty years ago stopping one day up in a
small valley north of Taos and watching
an old man mowing his hayfield with a
team of horses. It was a great sight.
Today the whole hay process is so different than it was in my teen years. One
machine cuts and windrows the hay. Even
a single mower is of totally different
design than in my haying years. More on
haying later. Back to reality and that is to
get this issue out in a timely manner.
Pax cum nobis.
Western Bison Association 9th Annual
Wild West Buffalo Stampede Show and Sale
November 30 & 31 and December 1, 2007 • Ogden, Utah
PAGE
8
October 2007
Bison Review
A Publication of the Western Bison Association
Where’s The Muscle?
Submitted by Susan Maass
For years I have been of the belief that
we want as much bone on our animals as
possible because the more bone the more
muscle they will have. I was a keynote
speaker for the Canadian Bison
Association in 1995 on judging bison and
along with my “form follows function”
presentation, I also made this point about
bone size. In bovine, the easiest way to
measure this visually is to look at the cannon bone located above the knee joint on
the front legs. In fact, bison have finer
bones than most bovine, so considering
that bison are so powerful and strong their
bone density and actual bone hardness
makes up for the smaller size. Ask any
pet shop owner why the buffalo dog bones
sell better. They last twice as long.
Actually, they last forever. When I finished my presentation, a young man
approached me from Alberta and stated
that I should know that a study done at the
University of Alberta dispelled the belief
that greater bone surface is related to larger muscles. I thanked him for the information and told him that I knew there is a
great deal of dispute over this belief; one
more reason judging is so subjective.
Last year in preparation for Denver,
my neighbor asked why I wasn’t taking
“that bull” instead of the one I had chosen.
We were looking at two year old bulls. I
told him that there was no doubt in my
mind that he was indeed correct. ‘That
bull’ was a better bull but I told him that a
bull like that could not win in Denver
because in Denver you had to have frame
to win. “That bull” is an Iron Horse son
that I am using this year and he has amazing muscle mass. He would be criticized
for lacking enough hump. Never mind
that his hump is still very much there.
This same neighbor helped me work animals for Denver and said of Iron Lady, “I
can’t imagine that there’s a better heifer
than this.” Maybe we should have him
judging somewhere. Iron Lady took
Grand and the other bull took second in
his class.
Allow me to finish boasting by saying
that Colorado Bison Co. may have been
the beginning of this “frame problem”
back when Chief Joseph and Rainmaker
took top awards in 1998 and 2000, both
very large framed bulls. Large framed
bulls have continued to take top honors in
Denver. Frame does not necessarily
equate to more bone surface. An animal
with less height may actually have larger
bones in regard to actual surface area.
For some time, I have been thinking
about, observing and more recently study-
ing data on carcasses, so let me share my
unofficial and unscientific thoughts on the
topic.
I talk to Bruce Anderson, owner of
Western Buffalo Company in Rapid City,
from time to time and more recently was
quizzing him on the data from the DTBA
Reality Based Carcass Class data, so well
done in a booklet produced by Karen
Conley. He made the comment that if he
could get animals like Larry Byrd brings
in, all the time, he could pay five cents or
more a pound. Larry had told me that
Bruce likes his animals but now I was
hearing it from the source. Bruce said,
“They are just more muscled.” The Byrds
do not have any woods bison in their herd
which contribute to more frame. They do
have very good animals and generally
very balanced animals, not always the
tallest or heaviest, but they are well muscled.
Back to the DTBA carcass class; yield
is measured in actual pounds of salable
meat broken down into categories from
trim meat to the middle cuts. Pictures are
taken exhibiting the differences. Pictures
of the animal live and pictures of the rib
eye are also taken and vary widely
between specimens. The producer
answers questions on feed regimen, date
of birth, weaning weights and live weight
before slaughter. Grass finished or grain
finished animals can enter this class. This
data is very interesting because yield on
hot hanging weight is not measured. Do
we get too ‘hung up’ (pardon the pun) on
yields on hot weight when weight of the
bones, organs and waste, not to mention
dung hanging on the animal from a feedlot, affect the percentages? In summary,
because I cannot show you the booklet
here, the amount of profit per animal
varies greatly. The difference is mostly in
muscle volume.
Four years ago I attended a grass
genetics conference in Denver featuring
Gerald Frey and Alan Nation. I would
highly recommend going to it if it comes
to your area. Stockman Grass Farmer does
these seminars. We have a natural grass
converter with the buffalo. The grass finishers want a smaller animal. They also
claim that the meat from a smaller boned
animal is always more tender. They claim
that a beef animal does not begin to marble (beef producers want marbling) until it
reaches the weight of its dam. So if the
dam is a 1,400 pound animal, the bull offspring will marble later, finish later and
cost more to raise. I am not sure how this
applies to us, if at all. The grass goal is a
950 -1,000 pound dam. This is a weight
where most bison cows will weigh from
most herds after raising a calf on hard
grass. The cattle breeds have gotten much
bigger than that. Considering that
Certified Angus Beef has recently put a
limit on size to qualify for their program
and that you rarely see a Simmental herd
(very large cows) anywhere, perhaps even
the cattle people are reducing the size of
their animals. And many of us have 1,200
- 1,400 pound cows in our herds. Are
these larger cows producing offspring that
take longer to finish? Having finished on
grain for years, these cows raised the preferred calves. Now that we are doing
strictly grass, I will be watching to see if
the offspring of a well muscled but smaller cow isn’t the better keeper. There is a
significant difference in muscle size
between bison and when we look at the
specimens brought in for judging there
may not seem to be much variation
because consignors have conditioned animals for competition, but looking at carcass values and looking at a herd during
breeding season tells the true story. And
don’t forget to visit the bison ranches that
do not compete in show and sales. The
variance is enormous.
At this conference there was an older
couple that had been raising grass finished
beef for years. They had a theory that flat
boned animals were better grass animals
and they selected for flat bones. They had
to explain to everyone what they meant
and I immediately knew that a buffalo was
a flat boned animal by their definition.
They would feel inside the jaws of their
cattle and keep the ones with a flat jaw
bone. The flat boned animals also had a
flat side on their front legs instead of
being round in shape. There is a similar
belief about the two different style herding dog breeds; the pointed nosed herding
breeds (the stalkers) have a flat leg bone
and the full muzzled herding breeds (the
drivers) have a round leg bone.
So in closing, let me emphasize that
muscle is not the only aspect of a good
animal but muscle was my topic for this
discussion and I am less certain of what I
believe to be true than I used to be. Maybe
it is a sign of maturity or that the more we
learn the more confusing life gets to be. I
still like my big girls that raise a strapping
calf and come through the season lean but
not wasted. On the bull side I think we
have many that are too narrow or “knifey”
looking and these seldom have the muscle
that a bison should have. At the very least,
you all need to make some comments and
get them written up for an ongoing discussion for Bison Review!!!
Bison Review
October 2007
A Publication of the Western Bison Association
PAGE
9
The Last Scoop
By Susan Maass
Painter reminded me that I started this
column so that I better keep it going. I
guess I will think of something. It was a
career talent to talk to anyone about anything.
During the International Bison
Conference (IBC) street party we had the
opportunity to meet up with some wonderful folks from Idaho that we first recognized as Stampede attendees a few
years ago. Kevin and Anita Porter from
Ponderray, Idaho have been preparing for
their first buffalo, doing all their homework and planning, and will be getting their animals this fall from
Spud and Bentley Harper at Rock
Creek Ranch, Harpers Ferry, Idaho.
They have been very busy moving
and building but we hope they have
time to take a break and join us in
Ogden. We had a few beers in wishing them the best. 777 Ranch and
Prairie
Edge,
with
Mimi
Hillenbrand at the helm, sponsored
the street party, complete with a live
band and a Taste of Rapid City with
seven restaurants providing various
bison entrees. A great time was had
by all.
The speakers at IBC were exceptional. If you are a member of the
National Bison Association, I highly recommend getting on bisoncentral.com and reading the synopsis from
each speaker. Alan Savory from
Holistic Management International was
keynote speaker on Friday and I want
to share with you a small piece of information from his speech. His presentation included incredible photos of
restoration, most taken from airplanes,
that supported his theories. He believes
that we can reverse global warming
simply by getting more hooves on the
ground, which translates to getting
more animals grazing, breaking the
ground for more plant life to take seed and
grow and more dung and urine to fertilize
growth. He stated that if, as ranchers, we
burn twelve square acres of land for fifteen minutes that the effect is equal to carbon contamination of 100,000 cars for
365 days of driving. If everyone replaced
all their vehicles with hybrids next week,
we wouldn’t put a dent in the situation.
Savory is humble in his experiences stating that as they continue to study and use
various methods that the old ways of rotational grazing, burning and technology
are not enough. Like our friends the Gears
believe, global warming began when man
evolved from a hunter/gatherer to agriculture and subsequent industrialization. We
need huge amounts of vegetation to
absorb carbon. Allowing predators to
force movement of herds and mob grazing
monitored very closely can make huge
differences in plant recovery. We all wanted to learn more technique, but that is
what one pays for when you hire their
consulting services. I remember from the
past that one of their techniques is to
introduce dung beetles to hasten the
decomposition of manure. He showed
reducing snakeweed infestation from
11percent to 1 percent and that this can be
accomplished in a short period of time. I
had to get into my book, ‘Weeds of the
West’ to learn
that snakeweed
is what we call
broomweed
and that indeed
we probably all
have it on our
ranches.
He
also showed
aerial pictures
of government
land next to
private land,
both desiccated by what we each believe
are ‘better’ management practices. We
have much to learn.
And speaking of fire, with Utah, Idaho
and western Montana ablaze, we hope and
pray that all of you in those areas have
stayed safe. You are undoubtedly prepared
and helping others where you can. The
smoke has traveled well into western
South Dakota and we’ve had several days
when we can actually smell the smoke.
Back to IBC, our friends from Moyle
Mink and Tannery, Marta and Lee Moyle,
were there as vendors. I had a nice chat
with them to learn that they are seriously
back-logged due to the hardship in getting
employees. They are not the first ones to
complain about the lack of willing work-
ers. The siding company that I hired to reside the house from hail damage, owned
by an energetic young man back from Iraq
a couple of years ago, cannot get workers.
I went to Colorado recently and stopped
in our Farm Credit office to chat with two
of our old friend loan officers and they
said they are stretched because they get
someone hired and trained and then they
leave. I have always said that 4 percent of
the population has no intention of working so when the unemployment rate gets
down to four point whatever, employers
are in a bind. And now we add to the
equation, immigration tightening up and
more people with
more wealth that simply don’t need to
work. How did I get
started on this!
The last scoop
wouldn’t be complete
without an update on
where the spin last
stopped; our Region 2
National
Bison
Association Director,
Rex Snyder, and his
tasks as the Gold
Trophy Show and
Sale liaison. We
arrived at IBC to
learn that the Rules
Committee had already met Tuesday
afternoon and much to everyone’s surprise, at the Thursday afternoon board
meeting, all of the major suggestions that
resulted from Rex’s survey had been
approved by committee. Nine consignor
producers attended this meeting. The
board went through each recommendation
and in summary: The Market Class will
not count towards Producer of the Year or
Rookie of the Year; the 3-4 Year Old Bred
Cow Class will not require a calf certification from your veterinarian; two bulls
per consignor will be allowed in the Two
Year Old Bull Class; consignors will be
allowed seven entries; Trichomoniasis
testing will be required of all yearling and
two year old bulls. We watched the tenaciousness of Rex on this one. He had recommended the trich test still be an option,
as survey results showed a 50/50 answer
on whether to require this test. In the audience you could feel the “Let it go Rex! We
have all the changes that were deemed
necessary.” However, with a better understanding of how the lack of this test holds
the buyers from several states from buying bulls, it should be better for the sale
even though most of us abhor “government regulations”. The GTSS Rules
Continued on back page
Western Bison Association
10711 N. Market St.
Mead, WA 99021-9502
The Last Scoop
Continued from page 9
Committee will be working on the possibility of a Female Market Class and is
asking for assistance from the Grass
Committee to possibly start a Grass
Finished Market Class. Congratulations
Rex!
Rex and Ronda drove in just for the
Board meeting and to represent the IBC
with Bert in the Deadwood Days of ‘76
Parade on Friday, leaving right after the
parade to get back for haying. But we do
have a parting picture given us by Gail
Griffin and another from Dave Carter.
Thanks Gail and Dave! They followed a
wagon with a two horse hitch put together by Scott Peterson for the IBC. The right
side horse was terrified of Bert so they
had to stay “hidden”
behind the wagon
so that horse would
keep moving. I
thought back to one
of our IBC committee meetings at
Peterson’s when a
bottle baby was on
the loose and having lots of fun
antagonizing the
horses. You don’t
suppose….
bad
memories there.
National Bison Association Director
ballots are in the mail. Rex Snyder is running uncontested for
Region #2, but those of
you from his district,
Wyoming, Colorado
and New Mexico,
show your support for
a fine job by sending in
your ballot for Rex.
Just for your amusement I included a new
sign for the Buffalo
Chip
Campground
entrance, the infamous
Sturgis Bike Rally
campground and live entertainment spot
just east of town.
WBA Host Hotel - Marriott Ogden
Reservations: 1-888-825-3163 or (801) 827-1190
Booking Code: BISA • Deadline November 12, 2007