The Rural Voice, 1998-07, Page 27Wild at heart
Bison have the best and worst traits of wild
animals. They're independent and need little
care but when they do need to be handled
they need special attention
Story and photos by Keith Roulston
Bison (or
buffalo) can
turn cheap
grass into
expensive
protein with
little care
(above).
Arlene and
Aaron
Mountain
(right with
the mounted
head of their
first bull
General
Custer) have
been
keeping the
animals
since 1984.
They now
have 50 of
them.
There is nothing manicured about
Aaron and Arlene Mountain's
farm beside a lake, at the end of
a dead-end road near Dornoch.
It was this love of the natural look
that drew them to raise buffalo in the
first place.
Aaron recalls first becoming
interested in buffalo (they're
officially bison but the Mountains
prefer buffalo) after reading an article
in World of Beef magazine. He sat up
and told Arlene "That's what I'd
really like to do."
Buffalo appealed to him because it
was a natural product, requiring little
pampering. He'd been growing beef
since the couple had taken over one
of his father's farms in 1975 and built
a house overlooking the lake. His
emphasis in beef production had been
on using as few non -natural inputs as
possible.
Once the Mountains' curiosity was
piqued, they began to research the
animals including taking a trip to visit
Pierre Belanger at Earlton who had
been bison farming since 1972. "I
wanted to taste the meat," Aaron
recalls. With no ready-made
marketing system for buffalo he
realized "If I'm going to have to sell
it myself, I'd better like this stuff."
He bought some ground meat and
made up burgers, barbecued them and
served them to family members.
Luckily, everybody liked the taste
and by the fall of 1984 the Mountains
were in the buffalo business. They're
happy they did, with about 50
animals in all ranging over their 150
acres of pasture. Today the buffalo on
Mountain Lake Bison Range are the
main source of income for the family.
"My only regret is that I didn't
start a few years earlier," Aaron says.
They began with 10 animals after
putting in a successful bid for the
surplus animals from the Kidd Creek
Mine in Timmins. They started with
six heifers and four bull calves at a
cost of $800 each. Since then they've
added more animals and grown their
own stock. Recently they replaced
their bulls with new animals from
Belanger's herd. Now they have 30
females and two breeding bulls.
Some of the heifer calves will be
sold, as soon as they are weaned, to
other producers for breeding. The
bull calves, after weaning, are taken
to a second farm where their pasture
JULY 1998 23