Cook's Bison Ranch Preserves Historic Ind. Animal
Published: Friday, September 22, 2023
The seal of Indiana holds great significance to Peter and Erica Cook of Wolcottville. It symbolizes what once was and, better yet, what could be the heritage of Indiana.
Nestled in the foreground of the Indiana State Seal is a bison jumping over a log. In schools, children are taught that this symbolizes the advance of settlement in the U.S. as frontiersman followed the trails bison left as they fled westward.
"The state seal actually shows the bison jumping over the log of the tree that the guy has cut down, but what we believe they are trying to symbolize is that when we came through, we basically pushed 'em out. This is a native area for them, so that's one of the reasons we have that," Peter said.
Peter and Erica started raising the bison because of their passion for the history of the animal, and that love has only grown. They enjoy having a unique commodity.
"For me, it was something that was really different" for the area, Peter said.
"A lot of people don't realize how embedded it (the bison) was in our country before, I guess, we changed it," Peter said.
Not only were bison prevalent across much of the nation, but they were also a symbol for much of the U.S. The bison can be found in several state seals and/or flags, including: Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. It was also represented monetarily with the buffalo nickel and the $10 bill and is used by multiple sports teams, such as the Buffalo Bills in the NFLor Pennsylvania's Bucknell Bison in the NCAA.
The Cooks refer to bison meat as "the future meat of America." While they admit it likely will never outshine beef in numbers, as only about 100,000 bison are processed per year compared to the same number of cattle being processed weekly, the Cooks highlight the nutritional aspects of the meat. Consumers today are becoming more concerned about the sustainability of their food products and are wary of the use of growth hormones and other alterations, they said. Bison are not given growth hormones and tend to be leaner than beef while still maintaining a similar flavor.
"Put it into your (dietary) plan. The more you eat of it the more you help restore the species," Peter said. "It seems backwards—I've had people say to me 'but you have to kill it to eat it—' but you're not going to kill the animals that are producing the meat, so the more people eat of it the more there will be because the more cow/calf herds there'll be because there's a need for it, a demand for it."
"With the tours, I really just kind of hit on what a privilege it is to still be able to view these animals, and we do talk a lot about the history of the animal because they were almost extinct," Erica said. "It's kind of (to) help bring back that American tradition the animal."
Yellowstone National Park was the home to the only known wild herd of bison in the U.S. by 1894, according to the National Park Service. Today, there are over 362,000 bison in North America, according to bisoncentral.com.
Peter added that many Native American tribes are beginning to put bison back on their lands.
When people learn that the Cooks raise bison, they receive reactions from disbelief to awe.
Most of their revenue comes from selling the meat through North American Bison LLC. Tours, Peter said, would be their top revenue source if they did more of them.
"You're always in limbo from one year to the next because there's really no sale in the summer," Peter said, describing the market price for bison.
He estimates this year to be between $700-$1,200, but this depends on the size and sex of the bison being sold.
In addition to raising bison, Erica works on staff at the LaGrange Church of God and Peter is a LaGrange County commissioner. They also produce hay for their bison and horses.
Bison can withstand more mineral than other animals and don't need as much protein, so they are sustained with a lesser quality hay than what is necessary for other ruminants. Cattle need close to 18% protein, while bison only need 12% protein from hay.
Historically, bison would dig for their food in the winter, Peter said.
"It's really almost a survivalist mentality for them in the winter, you know, just eat enough to keep your gut full and they get value out of what's there, but it's usually not a lot of high-quality value in the winter feed."
So, although the quality of hay that is typically fed to bison is lower than that of cattle, Peter says it is likely better than what they would scrounge up naturally.
A challenge is, while bison do not require much management, if there is a medical need, there is a lot of struggle to address it.
"They do not like to leave the herd, and you actually usually make the problem worse by separating them," Peter said. "Unless they're going to die, you don't want to separate them because being away from the herd is very, very stressful on them."
So, the best thing to do most of the time is to let the bison follow their instincts and heal naturally.
Another big challenge is deciding what, where and how to sell bison.
"Our business has kind of shifted (since 2015). We did sell our meat business, so we aren't marketing a lot of our meat anymore. We have those processed at a bison co-op in North Dakota and they market the meat from there."
The bison are bred on the Wolcottville property and then after they are weaned, they are sent to North Dakota for about a year before they are sent to the processing plant. Heifers stay in Indiana for about a year and a half after they are weaned because they grow slower than the males.
Including butcher animals, the Cooks own between 1,000 and 1,400 bison. However, the majority of the herd is on their North Dakota property as only 300 are in Wolcottville. Per year, about 600 of the Cooks' bison are butchered.
Now the Cooks mainly host groups, such as the LaGrange Chamber of Commerce last Thursday, with much of their business coming from the County Visitors Bureau. Their main focus is raising the animals to be the healthiest they can be, rather than marketing the meat locally and trying to balance the needs of the bison and their ranch with local restaurants and chefs.
"We're just thankful to be a part of this community and be able to share our story and this animal that we've grown to love," Erica said.
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