Have you been thinking of crossbreeding some of your bison with beef cattle?

That has sounded like a good idea to lots of honest men and women for more than a century. If we can bring about in one animal: the best of both buffalo and cattle—that would be great, wouldn’t it?

How about having that sound intelligence and hardiness of American bison for every storm that comes along—evolved and adapted through thousands of years—to live in the far north?

And then mix in the abundance of great beef—not just what the slim-hipped buffalo provides, but real abundance in length and breadth of that tasty, tender loin and hip: mmmm.

Your beefalo—or catalo—or whatever you choose to call them—would certainly retain the best traits of both species, wouldn’t they?

Every few years it seems like some promoter is trying to sell that idea. Sounds like a good one, Right? Have you ever been tempted?

Birth Synchrony refers to the short period of time in the spring during which most buffalo calves are born. Typically, the main birthing season occurs within three or four weeks in spring, even though bulls may run with the cows all year around. In the long history of Buffalo evolving on the plains of North America, birth synchrony is considered an adaptation that insures that most calves are born at the time they are most likely to survive. This applies to Plains Buffalo and probably even more acutely to Wood buffalo of the far north. Because of long cold winters, the window of time for optimal survival of buffalo calves is especially short in the far north reaches of Canada where Wood buffalo live on the open range. Often pregnant cows come through winter in a semi-starved condition. Then almost suddenly grass greens up. It’s the birthing season. Winter semi-starvation gives way to spring’s tender and nutritious plant growth. This provides the best food of the year for mothers and...

Feeding an orphan calf is an emergency situation. It has to be done “right now!” And it is a time commitment.

So it’s a good idea to be prepared.

Calving season has arrived and so have many new buffalo babies. It’s an exciting time of the year when new calves are welcomed to the world.

Fortunately for you who are buffalo ranchers there are usually few problems associated with calving.

Brucelosis has a devastating effect on cattle, in that infected cows abort their first calf, and sometimes the infection stays in the system for years. The disease also infects Bison and elk.  European cattle initially brought the bacteria Brucella abortus to the new world. The disease especially spread through dairy cattle, but wild bison and elk in the Greater Yellowstone Area became infected with the disease before the 1930s. The  brucellosis vaccines available today are considered only 65% effective for cattle and even less so for bison and elk. It’s complicated. And because they are live vaccines, they can bring the infection itself. Heifer calves need to be vaccinated before the age of 12 months. Otherwise, if any are pregnant at the time of vaccination, they may abort and potentially spread the disease to herd mates or even people getting in contact with the aborted fetus and placenta.There is hope of better vaccines to come, but it may be quite a long time. New vaccines are...