Why Bison?

We get a lot of people asking why we decided to raise bison on the farm. Short answer? They help us build healthy soil. Not only is bison a delicious healthy protein, but more importantly, we needed a large grazing animal to help transition the pastures from annual rye grass production to perennial systems. For the forty years before we started farming, the land we work with was tilled each year and relied heavily on chemical pesticidesand fertilizers to grow commercial grass seed. When we started working with a new part of the property we would often find the soil to be sterile. After years of “mining” the land, the soil was essentially acidic dirt; very few microbes, fungai, nitrogen, phosphorus and minimal nutrients needed to grow healthy pastures. 

The bison play a key role in replacing nutrients by pooping and peeing on the pastures. The herd mows the grass, allowing our no till plantings to grow. The bison’s cloven hooves help aerate the soil while promoting seed to soil contact. We have found that after we start working with a pasture it takes about five years for us to see healthy growth, biodiversity and perennial systems in place. The bison play a key role in this. 

When managed efficiently by mimicking migration patterns of bison through rotational grazing, large ruminants like bison can help develop grasslands and prairies and improve the health of the land. By enabling us to establish healthy grasslands we keep our ground covered at all times with plant material. The bison help grow grass that uses carbon as fuel, the plants grow deep roots that efficiently pull the carbon deep into the soil. In a healthy grassland, with a diverse blend of region-specific native grasses, root systems can be up to ten feet deep. These grasslands can also make the land more resilient to extreme events like flooding, by having strong root systems underground.

As we look towards the future of food it is essential to acknowledge the benefits of properly managed grasslands, their contribution to our ecosystem and the animals that keep this cycle in motion. In our operation, animal impact is an essential part of the equation when we talk about building healthy soil. We are all dependent on soil for food production and we need to cultivate soil health like our lives depend on it.

Pruning – Winter 2022

Pruning season is in full force. The hazels and apples get pruned this time of year. In the young trees, pruning helps them train the tree to grow that will withstand the weight of ice, nuts and fruit. In the older orchards pruning is done using pole saws rather than clippers. We prune to remove diseased and dead wood, extend the life of the orchard, increase light infiltration and give vigor to the tree.We prune when it is cold and dry during January & February to reduce the risk of bacterial/fungal infection and allow the trees to have an easier time healing from the cuts.

Day Grazing in the Hazelnut Orchards – November 14, 2021

There are multiple benefits to running the pigs through the hazelnuts after harvest. We set up a paddock in the oak trees adjacent to the hazelnut orchard. We are able to keep the pigs in the forest and open up the young orchard to supervised day grazing. 

One of the main pests for a hazelnut is the filbert (aka hazelnut) moth. This moth overwinters as a worm in the hazelnuts and acorns from the oaks that have dropped on the ground. When we run the pigs through the hazelnuts and oak groves, the pigs eat the fallen acorns left over from the harvest. Not only does this help us mitigate the filbert worm population and limit spraying, it also creates really tasty pork products. We have come to realize farming, ranching and our own bodies rely heavily on biodiversity and synergistic relationships. What a joy it is to try to cultivate that.

Head Bull Joe – October 29, 2021

We have to switch out the breeding bulls every three or so years to keep from inbreeding and maintain quality genetics. Normally we buy a calf or two from proven lineage and raise them on the farm so they are used to the environment. We had been warned in the past that buying a mature bison bull or swapping with another rancher could lead to issues with the animal not respecting the fences, being aggressive, and generally not adjusting well to a new location. We got lucky.

Two years ago we needed a full grown breeding bull. StangelBison Ranch in Joseph, Oregon had Joe and we brought him home as a four year old. From the moment he arrived on the ranch he has been so chill. He observes and thinks before he acts. He normally brings up the rear of the group and makes sure everyone is accounted for. We respect that Joe is a wild animal, at the same time we are grateful for his calm nature. He’s a boss, he knows it, and he doesn’t need to prove that to us.

Why No Till? – October 13, 2021

Fall is a busy planting time on the farm. We seeded about sixty acres using a no till drill. No till drills do not require the farmer to till the soil in order to plant. The machine cuts a small row in the soil using a disk and drops seed in the row, it then covers the seed all in one pass. We save time and money being able to accomplish planting in one pass in the fields, rather than multiple steps like tillage, planting, fertilizing etc. No till is not new, but it is becoming more popular as farmers embrace the benefits of minimal soil disturbance. 

We start by beating up the pasture we are going to plant into. We either have the bison graze the rye grass down to stubble, or run pigs out on the field. We typically wait about two years after taking the pasture out of annual rye before we plant. We then try to outcompete the annual rye using a diverse perennial pasture mix before the weeds move in. This pasture was planted with White Clover, Balansa Clover, Mihi Persian, Antler Chicory, Boston Plantain, Brutus Tall Fescue, Sheild Mustard, Bayou Kale & Festulolium. 

We avoid tillage and use a no till drill in order to minimize soil disturbance. The soil is teeming with life, a teaspoon of soil if full of mycorrhiza, fungai, bacteria and bugs. These systems keep our soil healthy, digest nutrients and by products, transmit information through root systems, and a million other functions. When we avoid tillage we keep these delicate systems intact. It is important to keep a layer of rooted plants, like grass, on the surface to protect these systems. Bare tilled soil allows moisture to escape, increases the underground temperature, can compactthe ground contributing to water run off and erosion. Allowing the soil systems to stay intact, keeping it covered with roots in the ground, and planting a diverse mixture of plants will ultimately make our farm more productive and create higher density of forage for the animals.

Tansy Moth – July 16 2021

We are excited to see Tansy Moth aka Cinnabar Moth show back up on the farm. We knew it existed but haven’t seen more than a few for many years. According to OSU, if the insects are presentit may still take many years for the population to build up and control the weed. “Tansy Ragwort was unintentionallyintroduced to Oregon in the early 1920s, and within 30 years, became a regional problem, killing thousands of livestock animals – mostly cattle and horses, and contaminating pasture and hay. The Oregon legislature commissioned the Oregon Department of Agriculture to implement a biological control program for the weed, and three insects – the cinnabar moth, a flea beetle, and a seed head fly – were introduced from 1960-1971.” (OSU Extension Catalog). 

You cannot mow tansy, it sprouts up in tiny perennials when you mow. It is possible to spray it, if that’s how you roll, but that’s really not in our toolbox. You have to go out and pull each individual plant, or outcompete it with other species. The best way to control it is to promote healthy stands of grass and prevent overgrazing. We are working on it, in the meantime it is pretty exciting to get help from nature.

Bees, Friends and Splitting Hives – Summer 2021

Our friends at Humble Bee Honey live down the street. They often keep a number of hives on the farm seasonally. It is always fun to visit with them when they come to take care of their yard. This day they were making new hives. The bees multiply in number and can outgrow their bee boxes. The beekeepers place a new box on top of the hive and the bees migrate to the top. The smoke used helps to calm the bees and make them more chill. Warmth of the original hive in the bottom box keeps the top box warm. Once enough bees have moved upstairs a barrier is placed between the two boxes so the top bees cannot get back to the original hives. Later a queen is introduced to the new box and the hive is formed. If the beekeepers didn’t do this the “new hive” would still form and likely swarm. This means when the hive outgrows their home they would leave the box in search of a new home. Have you ever seen a swarm? If we see a swarm of hundreds to thousands of bees in a tree, or on the side of our house you better believe we are calling Erica and Ronnie at Humble Bee to come catch it.  

April Maple Flower Fried Fritters – April 18, 2021

April Maple flower fritters may be a tradition. When the maple trees bloom, their delicious blossoms can be eaten raw in a salad, or in this case fried in cayenne beer batter and served with pineapple spicy dipping sauce.

Measuring Forage With Melissa – March 16, 2021

Becca and Ben had the pleasure of learning from Melissa Fery from the OSU Extension service about how to measure the number of tons of forage per acre. She taught us three different methods:

1. “The Plonk Method” – Turns out there is a tool called the aplate meter that you can “plonk” down in various parts of your paddock and it will measure the amount of grass growing. We plonked in about 40 places and took an average.

2. Measuring with a grazing stick. You measure in multiple areas of a paddock to determine the average height of forage.

3. Determine the density of forage by taking samples of grass in multiple areas, drying and weighing them.

The idea is we can use this information to decide when grazing should be started, to predict how many days a certain paddock can feed the herd, when to move our animals to another pasture and average growth rates. We found that even though most of our pastures are not where we want them to be, we are pretty amazed that we are able to support our herd from them and are excited to increase the forage as time goes on.

Quarter Mile Pig Move – September 21, 2020

Moving pigs a quarter of a mile without fences, a photo diary.

1. Ready to move

2. Following the leader

3. Big corner game

4. Following the pigs ship

5. Down the road without fences

6. Safely in the pond paddock

7. So tired, must veg

We half expected to be chasing the pigs around the property the rest of the day, but they behaved. Proud farmer moment.

Ruminating – July 30, 2020

Ru-mi-nate – verb, gerund or present principle: ruminating.

1. To think deeply about something. “we sat ruminating on the nature or existence” OR..

2. Chew the cud.

We prefer to think the bison are contemplating the nature of existence, but they could just be chewing the cud. Ruminants have different digestive systems than other mammals. Instead of one compartment to the stomach, they have four. Of the four compartments the rumen is the largest section and the main digestive center. The rumen is filled with billions of tiny microorganisms that are able to break down grass and other coarse vegetation that animals with one stomach cannot digest. So some thoughts to ponder as you digest.

How to Compete With Annual Rye Grass & Hay Makin – June 25, 2020

Before we started farming the property in 2013, the farm had been leased out to a grass seed/annual rye grass farmer. The farm is around 320 acres, so we take back portions of the property as we can manage them. We needed a large grazing animal to help us manage the space and restore soil health. Fortunately the bison can eat rye grass. It is not the ideal food source, as it has a high sugar content and we want them to have variety but it works as a portion of their diet. Annual rye grass is a tenacious crop and difficult to compete with. It is an annual, but comes back strong for the first two years and then the weeds move in if you do not get on top of it. We are working of different strategies to establish perennial grazing pastures. 

Right now we are grazing the bison on the rye grass regrowth and then making hay to remove the seed heads. In the fall we will use a no till drill to plant in a perennial cocktail of grasses, forbes and legumes. What the pastures really need is for humans to stop using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, to stop breaking up the top soil via plowing and tillage. We need to move towards a system that promotes more nutrients, more Fungai, more biomes and microbiology in the soil. More bison, more poop and pee, thousands of dollars of lime to correct the pH (which is not affordable), and time. When we do our soil tests at the beginning of trying to rebuild a pasture, the soil is dead. It is acidic, and hard packed with limited ability to allow water to infiltrate. We noticed that it takes about five years to flip a pasture from annual rye to perennial forage, but it does happen and that makes it all worth it.

Fish Guts – June 18, 2020

Every spring and fall there us an opportunity to fertilize the trees. We suspect our trees are deficient in nitrogen and spraying fish guts can help correct that, as well as deposit a broad spectrum of micronutrients and elements such as zinc, phosphorus, and calcium. We like to spray the fish guts, lets the leaves absorb the food, reassess and apply as needed, but the rule is no nitrogen after July. The trees need time to go dormant. If you keep fertilizing the trees keep growing and don’t transition well going into winter. Fish guts over chemical fertilizer any day! It smells amazing!

Mulching – April 24, 2020

Mulching season is in full swing every spring. We give the yearling trees a thick layer of mulch. Our orchards are organic, so taking care of a single tree is a multistep process. We cannot simply spray the base with fertilizers and chemicals to make the weeds disappear. We first scalp the area around the base of the tree using a hoe to remove all the grass. We place a tree protector around the small tree to protect is from sunburn, wildlife and pests. We then apply gravel around the base of the tree protector for weed and critter control. After that we give the tree a generous helping of mulch. Our mulch blend is typically wood chips with some manure, hard woods are preferred because they break down slower. The mulch helps to fertilize and feed the tree while keeping the weeds and grass from growing back. Mulch also locks in moisture to be called upon during the dry summer months. We mulch in the spring while there is plenty of moisture to collect. We repeat this process yearly until the tree is larger and doesn’t need as much support. One down, a thousand to go!

Apple Grafting – April 5, 2020

The farm is in the process of grafting apple trees. We start by planting rootstock, Bud 118, which will create a strong base for tree on which to graft. When we graft we take scion wood from the desired parent tree, in this case a Golden Russet, and a branch from our rootstock. What makes an apple tree desireablevaries. It could be a good eating apple, or a tree that grew an apple with the correct tannin, acid and sugar profile to make cider. We take a piece of scion wood from the desireable tree and graft it to its new trunk, the rootstalk. We cut them both precisely and secure the branches together with tape. The tree will heal by forming a callous, sap will travel from the rootstalk to the new bud and they will join together to create the tree. When the tree matures it should produce the desired fruit, for this tree Golden Russet apples. 

Why not just plant the Golden Russets directly? Every seed you plant in the ground produces a different plant, just like humans, the offspring (seeds) of the trees are not identical to their parents, so even if you used seeds from the most amazing apples, it is not guaranteed that your tree will produce the same fruit. If you want to produce a specific variety of apple, identical to the source you have to propagate, or graft it. Grafting ensures that we get the fruit we want by using scion wood from the desired tree. Some other benefits to this process is the root stock will help keep the tree about 15-20ft tall when a normal Golden Russet would grow to around 40ft, which is too large for our orchards. Bud 118 grafts will also produce fruit in about five years, rather than the 10-15yrs it would take a full Golden Russet to mature. 

We have to extend our thanks to our neighbors at Even Fall Cider for providing us with high quality scion wood from their farm, thank you!

Take 1/3, Trample 1/3, Leave 1/3 – March 29, 2020

Take 1/3, Trample 1/3, Leave 1/3. This is the grazing mantra we try to graze by. Anyone that works with livestock knows this is not a perfect process  but some tips for grazing management we try to follow include:

Grass is king, protect the crown! “The primary function of the root crown is storage of energy reserves for the plant. Most people mistakenly think the underground roots have this function, but research has shown this is the job of the root crown. These energy reserves sustain the plant throughout the winter months so that it remains healthy and ready to grow when warm, spring rains and longer days return,” (OSU Extension Service). This crown protection is especially important in fall months. In cool season grasses the crown is about 3” above the ground. We took a suggestion from our friend Melissa Fery from OSU and marked our boots at 3” so when we walk in the pasturewe can visualize the correct stubble height. 

Establishing a “sacrifice pasture” – until we have enough established pastures to graze year round, a safe, clean sacrifice pasture is imperative to feed hay during the winter months. This allows the rest of the pastures to rest and heal. The last thing we want is to overgraze our productive pastures. Overgrazing significantly reduces our forage carrying capacity in later months. We have to let our pastures rest to keep leafy material covering the ground to protect the soil and capture sunlight. Leafy plant material literally protects the soil from erosion, allows more water to infiltrate, and enables carbon sequestration. 

We try to mimic natural migration through pasture rotation. We use a series of temporary electric fences inside of a larger, more robust exterior fence. We move the bison frequently, working them in about two acre paddocks. Photo below, left day one, right day four.

Cover Crops – February 3, 2020

Cover crops can benefit your soil and ultimately your bottom line. We plant cover crops in the pasture, orchards and garden using a no-till drill. Not only do cover crops help correct nutrient deficiencies in the soil, they also make excellent forage for the livestock and mulch for the garden. Cover crops reduce soil erosion, increase water infiltration, control weeds, decrease soil compaction and increase organic matter. We like to say that soil is our main product, and the bison, hazelnuts, apples and pigs are the byproduct. 

Examples of cover crops we like include Triticale, Common Vetch, Red Clover, Bayou Kale, Chicory and Austrian Field Pea.We recommend planting as many varieties as you can and see what takes. “Producers often get caught planting three or four types of high yield, domesticated grasses and legumes, but it is important to recognize that indigenous herbs, many of which are deep-rooted perennials, provide a number of attributes including medicinal properties, nutrient density, drought resistance…there is a strong case for incorporating various herbs and other plants in paddock seed mixtures,” (Eco Farming Daily). We try to plant more than just a few species and hope that our land and animalsbenefit.

Bees, Catkins and Hazelnut Pollination – January 31, 2020

These long slim flowers that form on the hazelnut trees are called Catkins. Would you be surprised to learn that the bees are not actually helping pollinate the trees? The bees are cute, we love bees, they help pollinate the apples and all sorts of other plants around the farm but they are actually “stealing” pollen from the hazels. 

Hazelnuts are wind pollinated aka anemophilous. Hazelnuts are also monoecious, meaning they have both male and female flowers on the same tree. The male flower forms Catkins, and the female part of the flower is a tiny bud that is often too small for the bees to get into and pollinate. Though hazelnuts have both male and female flowers on the same tree, they are self-incompatible, meaning they cannot set nuts with their own pollen. There has to be a compatible pollinizer, from a different variety, that is planted nearby for the wind to pick up and carry the pollen throughout the orchard. It is also recommended that you have at lease three different pollinizers in an orchard plot to cover early, mid and late blooms in the crops.

At the farm we grow six main varieties of certified organic hazelnuts. In organic farming we find that variety of diversity is key for healthy plants and a functioning ecosystem. This biodiversity honors the role that each species, no matter how small has to play. Even though the bees may not be really helping the orchard, the orchard is helping the bees and there is enough pollen to go around. Nature is a wonderful role model.

Mixed Orchards & Silvopasture – December 28, 2019

The farm planted seven strips of apple, hazelnut and alder trees in the middle of a large bison pasture. This may seem odd at first but we intend to use the orchard rows as dividers, with cross fences, to create smaller paddocks. When the trees are maturewe may even have the bison graze in the orchard rows. We are interested to see how we can integrate our systems.; the trees, the pastures and livestock rather than separating them. Having integrated systems is mutually beneficial. The trees provide shade while bison eat the grass on the orchard floor, the pigs clean up the left over fruit and nuts and fertilize the orchard simultaneously. Mixed plantings in orchards can improve the overall health of the orchard. Like most things in organic farming, diversity creates resilience. Having different types of trees in the orchard helps reduce pest transmission, fungal and bacterial infections in the trees and allows us to see which trees grow the best. In addition to mixed orchards, we plant hedge rows for pollinator species and native plants around the farm. Native hedge rows are low maintenance, conserve water and create healthy places for people and wildlife. We can get more profit out of a plot while promoting biodiversity diversity and increasing the health of the soil. 

While the orchard strips are not exactly a silvopasture (Silva, Latin for “forest”), we aim to integrate more trees into our grazing operation. We have some silvopasture in the woods, and it turns out livestock can forage on a lot more than just grass. It is not necessary to cut down the forests to make your farm “workable”, you just have to get creative with your fencing and work with it.  

New Genetics – December 8, 2019

This weekend some members of the farm team made the trek to the Western Bison Association Stampede Auction Show & Sale in Ogden, UT to bring back a new bull calf. This calf will grow into the head breeding bull in the herd. Every few years we have to mix up our genetics. We run a single sire herd so we need to replace our bull when his female offspring are of age to breed in order to prevent inbreeding. Maintaining quality genetics is not only important for our growing herd, but imperative to maintain the integrity of the bison species. We are fortunate to be bringing home the Reserve Grand Champion from the 2019 show and sale, and his brother who took third place. They are out of 2J Bison, a prominent operation in the western United States known for their outstanding breeding stock. The photo of the mature bull is “Dusty”, their sire. 

At the conference we had the opportunity to attend the talks on bison genetics and holistic management. We drank whiskey and ate steak, and enjoyed the company of other bison producers. We don’t get to hang that often!