Montana has one of the largest populations of domestic bison in the country with around 20,000 of the majestic animals living on ranches and farms in the state.
While the number of animals left is just a fraction of what it once was when they were freely roaming the plains, the number is growing, and the industry seems to have a bright future.
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“I’ve always had an affinity for bison. They are just awesome animals. I just couldn’t let it alone. I convinced my family that it was a good idea and here we are,” says Ty Stubblefield, who owns Wild Bison Ranch in Carbon County.
Stubblefield is a relative newcomer to bison after putting his money on an old cattle ranch outside of Bridger and a herd of bison from Canada.
“I had no ranching background, whatsoever, so we went and visited a bunch of ranches, talked to a bunch of ranchers, had some great mentors. We went through a course called ranching for profit,” he says.
Bison are the largest mammal in North America, with some of the males weighing up to 2,000 pounds and standing six feet tall. There are a little more than 400,000 of the animals living on private ranches in the United States after they nearly were killed off at one point.
“They are not like beef. They’ve got a wild spirit to them. They are just chilling right now, but if we opened the gate, they would be in Yellowstone tomorrow,” Stubblefield says.
Bison also take a lot longer to mature than cattle and get to harvest, about twice as long.
The good news for these producers is that demand for bison meat is growing.
“It’s amazing. Higher in iron and B vitamins, lower in calories, fat and cholesterol then beef or even chicken and salmon,” says Melinda Anakalea with Harlow Ranch Bison Company.
Anakalea is also relatively new to bison, but not to ranching. She and her husband began raising a herd of bison on her family’s century old ranch near Thompson Falls about five years ago.
They sell the meat directly to consumers mostly through their website.
“The supply side of things is where the industry is struggling right now. We have built up a great customer base and people are realizing that they want bison and now to get the bison grown and ready to get on their plate is kind of where the issue is,” she says.
“I think if we can take that middleman out, ranchers will find it more profitable to sell meat directly to the consumer,” says Stubblefield, who also sells his bison meat directly to consumers online.
Around 80,000 bison were harvested in all of 2023 in the United States. That’s less than the approximately 125,000 cattle that the U.S. beef industry slaughters every single day.
It is still a relatively small industry, but one that these producers believe has a lot of room for growth.
“We by no means get rich, but we get to live this lifestyle that’s really important to us and our family,” says Stubblefield.
