There is a story to be told.

The ranch is a busy place and at times hectic. It provides achievement, joy, fulfillment, entertainment, frustration and sorrow. I firmly believe that staying true to my values on which this ranch is built translates into a bison product that I believe is of superior quality.

I want to share my journey with you.

“Get an education”, they said.

Outside of school I spent my childhood outside exploring nature and coming into the house covered in dirt with twigs in my hair and ladybugs in my pockets. Not surprising that coming out of high school I didn’t really know which direction to go as schooling was never high on the list of priorities. However, my parents encouraged a further education. Entered college for Early Childhood Development but that was not for me. In 1995 I entered the agriculture program at the University of Alberta and majored in Animal Science. Still no real direction but knew I wanted to do something with animals, possibly in the cattle or horse sectors. The first two years were a struggle academically.  I also discovered that finding the direction I wanted to go in was proving to be difficult. But I was determined in my goal and had to find ways to achieve it.

In looking for a summer job I placed an ad in an agricultural newspaper looking for work on a cattle and/or horse farm to gain work experience, as we never had any livestock on the farm.  I received phone calls from a few horse stables and one cattle producer but none of them seemed to resonate with me.  That’s where fate may have stepped in. I received a call from a bison and elk producer in Saskatchewan who offered me a position for the summer. I was intrigued and ended up working for him for two summers while attending university. This first summer job kickstarted my passion for bison.  By focusing on them I started to meet the most interesting people, many of whom have been mentors for me in my journey. 

Funny what happens when you find true interest in something. I was a struggling student all my life but I graduated from the UofA in 2000 with a Bachelor’s of Science with Distinction in Agriculture.  Once I found interest in what I was learning it all turned around.  Then, in 2001 I started at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan to study towards a Masters of Science. In 2005 I received my Masters of Science in reproductive physiology of bison. Specifically, my research looked into the onset of puberty and seasonal fertility of bison bulls. 

Although the education was an important part of leading me to where I am, it was only a part of it.  When I get asked what I got most out of my University education I say people.  It’s the people I met along the way that really fired my passions with their passions for what they did.  Ranchers that became mentors as I stepped into the raising of bison. Professors that were passionate about teaching in their field, most notably diversified livestock and meat science. Wildlife and conservation experts who were passionate about conservation of bison on many levels, as a species and research into preserving precious genetics. These individual shaped my beliefs in raising bison naturally, implementing regenerative agricultural practices, quality meat production and conservation of these majestic creatures.  

I would never have thought that when I embarked on my education it would lead me to where I am today.  Growing up on a vegetable farm the most common question I get asked is “what made me get into bison”.  The simple answer is the ad that I put in the Western Producer so many years ago but the real answer is much more complex.  It is a series of choices got me to where I am today managing a herd of 150 bison and running a retail meat business. 

However, not too long ago I started to wonder if fate had a hand in my life. 

Life is a result of decisions you make…..or is it? I wondered once, why bison? Never thought of them before that first summer job, and to be honest, when I was involved with both bison and elk I had a preference for elk. Then it struck me, Did a moment in Elk Island National Park some 20 years earlier as a young girl have a hand?

We lived an hour outside of Edmonton but my parents drove us to school every day into the City.  Country kids in a city school.  For me it was a challenge.  I always just wanted to be outside. One weekend the school decided to go on a camping trip to Elk Island National Park, just outside of the city.  For my classmates this was really exciting.  They got to leave the city.  For me it was still exciting but I experienced something I never had before.  Being outside with a big forest to explore and someone telling me where I could and could not go. 

As teachers do they want to make these trips educational.  I was young, maybe 10 at the time and although I was excited to explore a new forest I had other ideas on how to experience them. One of the organized activities was a nature walk.  Now, what you have to understand is that my definition of a nature walk and that of my teachers was very different.  We were to stay together as a group, not venture off the beaten path, don’t touch the plants, etc, etc.  I tried, I really did but my somewhere along the line I got distracted. I don’t remember exactly what happened on the walk, but I have a pretty good idea.  I probably found the structure boring and started exploring in my way.  Stopping and actually watching the bug crawl his way across the path or up a grass plant.  Probably even followed him off the path to see what his day was about.

It did not take long for me to fall behind and be on my own doing my own thing.  I have a faint memory of just wandering into camp when I was done exploring. A memory that is more clear is wandering down the path back to camp I hearing some rustling behind me on the trail.  I turned around and found myself looking at a bison, and she was just standing there looking at me.  It was a fleeting moment but it seems like something happened in that moment.  We just looked at each other for a moment and then she wandered off and I headed back down the trail.

At the time I probably did not even register what happened.  Never really gave bison another thought.  But on some level I wonder now if that bison cow so many years ago set the seed for what I do now. 

A ranch 25 years in the making. 

In 1999 my father and purchased the first group of yearling females. It consisted of 8 bison which were purchased from a ranch in northern British Columbia. These 8 females were delivered to the ranch in the fall of 1999. That following spring we purchased the first breeding bull “Thor” at a local production sale. That bull holds some memories for me. The purchase of him at an auction was the first I participated in the exercise of bidding at auction. Auctions can be exciting and nerve racking. Part way through the bidding, the auctioneer stopped the bidding and asked me if I knew the gentleman beside me. I said he’s my father. The auctioneer, who was a good friend to me, pointed out that we had been bidding against each other for the last couple of rounds. The excitement got the better of my father and he started bidding, although we agreed I would do any bidding. So we paid more than we needed to for the first breeding bull of the ranch. Thor was also the bull that first taught my father that bison are not big fluffy cows. He learned quickly that bison are not what he expected.

Over the years this group of bison grew to a herd of 25 females and I added a second bull. By this time Thor had also been replaced. In 2003 I started to sell bison meat at the farmer’s market my parents attended with their produce. It was a slow start as people were unfamiliar with the meat and needed to be encouraged to try it and cook it. It was an education process. However, it paid off and the demand for the meat was greater than what my small herd was producing. Needing to increase the herd size to attain more calves I also needed a larger land base. In 2009 I purchased 320 acres of my own and increased the breeding herd to 35-40 females.

Sadly, between 2009 and 2012 I lost both my parents. The market garden my parents had was discontinued. From that point on in time I have been running and managing the bison herd and the meat business on my own. A daunting task by anyone’s standards.

The herd grew in size again to 50 females and three herd bulls but it proved to be too much for the current land base to support. It also produced more animals for the meat market than what I had a market for. The herd was downsized again to 35 to give the land the rest it needed and reduce the overproduction of meat animals. Along with quality meat production, the current focus of the ranch is to improve the health of the land to enable both bison, wildlife and grasslands to thrive and all other biological systems they support. It is a continual learning process.

When a terrible accident puts everything in jeopardy.

Raising and working with bison is not for the faint of heart. These animals, right from a week old calf to a 3000 lb bull, have an enormous amount of strength. When they go through a handling facility steel panels rattle, wood boards break and the odd time an animal tries to go over. Although handling facilities and techniques have improved immensely in the past 30 years I have been involved with bison they are still creatures that demand respect. Producers in the industry understand that handling bison can’t be done in the “cowboy” fashion and all effort is taken to mitigate the risk of injury to both animals and the people dealing with them.

But ACCIDENTS happen.

In August of 2012, just a few months after my father had passed, I was out handling my herd and after making the decision that I had to find another way to accomplish what I was trying to do my world went dark. The next time I was conscious was in the ICU of the University Hospital after a 6 hour surgery to save my life. Having no memory of what actually happened I can only speculate. A bison must have got me from behind and thrown me into a gate that was not latched which landed me in the pen that my entire herd was in. They then ran out and I was caught in the stampede. I was gored in the chest several times and was knocked about. Amazingly no other bones, except for a shattered rib cage, were broken. I was airlifted to the hospital where they did not waste any time getting me into the operating room. Both lungs were collapsed and I had lost a lot of blood. The combination of STARS air ambulance and crack shot medical team quite literally saved my life. I spent the next eight weeks contemplating life.

Pretty much immediately, family was insistent that I sell the bison and they were ready to get started on that. But I was not so quick and I have to say I never had the thought of letting them go. Being on my own I did have to change how I approached situations and my safety is the priority. Now some people think I am too cautious and laugh when I get nervous of animals sticking their heads into vehicle windows.

After I had recovered enough to manage to go outside and visit with my herd it was a matter of finding a way to keep going and not let the accident end a dream.