BISONGUY "A" TEAM !

Bisonguy seed delivery!

It’s a good thing that we gain daylight hours in spring, as there is never a shortage of projects and priorities to be completed… its a battle with big objectives and non stop challenges some under our control and others not. Most of you live an average of 1000 km south of us and so the progress of our spring is much slower. For perspective, I would guess that the leaves on our trees are only out at about 60%; in 4 months these same leaves will be 60% yellow. Needless to say, the season is short and everyday counts. When we built our packing plant we always had the goal to harvest seasonal from August through to early April. This was done by design to be able to surge manpower for ranching priorities for a short battle season and so that our packing plant staff also have a connection to the ranch, land and animals we care for 365 days a year. The whole BisonGuy Meat Team has been mobilized to ranch duty.

We have a number of priority projects like any other year and a major project is pasture and hayland rejuvenation. We do not use any fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides on our ranch and so our productivity in our pastures is dependent on legumes like alfalfa and clovers that can fix nitrogen from the air into the soil for the benefits of our grasses. No legumes =, low production and so some fields were due for an overhaul. In an effort to be fast and furious we hired a contractor to come and plow 500 plus acres and our expanded ranch crew follows in behind with disking, harrowing, seeding and rolling the fields. As I write, 5 tractors are all working in unison completing each task. Dante from the Philippines has been disking 13 hours per day in my classic 1982 325 HP Steiger Panther. The tractor is a tank and I love the fact it has no electronics and it is so simple to fix and keep going. Only issue is the blower motor for the AC is burnt out and so Dante has been disking in what is essentially a moving greenhouse because it’s too dusty to open the windows of the tractor. I told him it’s part of boot camp training for building heat tolerance when he goes home to the Philippines to see his family this week. He and Rowell have not seen their families since October so we are very excited to see them head home for 6 weeks and then come back in time to bale hay (I’m being optimistic).

Spencer has moved from managing a platoon of meat cutters to the head of seeding operations and simultaneously organizing all the equipment maintenance that needs to be done. He has never farmed anything in his life and it’s a brand new challenge and change of pace. Days are long but Spencer said he is enjoying the time to listen to podcasts going back and forth in these big fields. Mandy has been making the last of the beef packs and is now managing the office in a John Deere 7330 pulling a set of harrows to smooth out the field after we completed disking and seeding. She grew up on a ranch but said its been at least 20 years since she was last in a tractor… so if you call the office and hear the motor you know what she is up to. Flavio is looking after keeping all the tractors fueled and machinery greased. He and Rowell are also spring cleaning the repair shop and putting together our Irrigation Reels that just came up from Chilliwack. Stay tuned for more on this story for another Newsletter.

Asides the field work we have all the beef cows and bison calving. Nero is home from University and looks after and manages the beef cows along with his assistant Luna when she gets home from school. This is a huge responsibility for a 19 year old and never a day is the same. He manages any health issues and also helps birth the cow if she is having problems. The biggest issue we are facing right now is a young pack of wolves and we had 4 calves killed and 4 injured in 3 days. Pasco, our oldest, is trying to predator control specialists but no luck last night with everything fogged in, crossing our fingers for tonight. . Its a lot of stress on the herd and tough on Nero as he has to deal with the aftermath of grafting calves onto cows that are all stressed out because their calf was picked off. During the day Pasco is in charge of building new bison fortifications aka Bison proof fencing. We have 8 km that needs to be built by mid June so we can properly manage the herds and the grass. The fencing is all with 6 foot high page wire and steel posts and we use a track hoe with a vibrator to sink the posts 4 feet. The prepping in advance of the fencing crew is done by Oro, our 17 year old…he operates “Catness” “a D6 Caterpillar dozer after school every day for 4 hours. He loves heavy equipment and starts Heavy Duty Mechanics in September.

The list above is about 50% of what is happening on the ranch right now but its a good representation of what it takes to operate and keep the wheels turning and the food coming. It’s literally a battle in a short season that takes a lot of coordination, planning and dealing with the expected and unexpected that mother nature throws at you. We are proud to say that the idea that we had for this work system is working well and it’s a great change of pace for the Meat Crew. Very cool to have a crew of butchers who’s hands also help grow grass, build the fences and care for the animals. It’s a BisonGuy A Team !