Sayersbrook Bison Ranch

On Monday, I was invited to take a personal tour of the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch in Potosi, Missouri. 

I've recently become aquainted with the ranch owners, and my day on the ranch this week was a moderately absurd, while simultaneously lovely and educational experience.

To get to work, I travel down a US highway, then a state highway, and then a county highway, before turning onto the road our lodge is on.

Sayersbrook is just a few miles from my office, so I hopped in the car Monday morning from work, and I headed to the ranch. 

I was cruising along county highway AA when a dumb ol' country squirrel darted beneath my tire, creating a "thuhm-bump" sound that nearly made me cry. 

I'm not a fan of death, and while running over a small mammal is probably some sort of Welcome to Missouri rite of passage, it still shook me up.

After the squirrel mishap, I found the bison crossing sign particularly sweet. (I'm not sure my trusty tank of a Ford Taurus would have held up well to a 2600 bull.)

Making note not to run over any of these huge creatures while on the ranch, I pulled through the gate. Immediately to my left sat the ranch's airstrip, and a bit further down the road was the family's home. 

A sprawling single-story, log home with picture windows and beautiful landscaping, the house delivered to me a new meaning of "ranch-style home". 

Later in the day I'd be joining the Sayers for bison lasagne in the kitchen of the house, and meeting with Mrs. Sayers about Washington Country Tourism Board planning. For now though, it was time for a ranch tour in one of Mr. Sayers' fleet of Hummers.

Along we chugged along, on road and off, around the property. I got to see what was once an apple storage space with quarter-inch-thick cork walls for insulation. 

Mr. Sayers' grandfather had stored apples from the orchard there. Now the room is arranged for presentations, and bison head (taxonimized) are hung from the walls and propped up on the floor.

The property is 3,000 acres, and its perimeter is six square miles. This repeater radio tower stands on Missouri's third-highest place (the highest is Taum Sauk and second is Little Pilot Knob).  We stopped here so that Mr. Sayers could feed this portion of the herd.

Bison, as it turns out, are pretty darned smart, but they're also herd animals. If one gets riled up or angry, it's like that the others will follow suit. 10 angry bison is scary, but 100 angry bison is terrifying. The Sayers' 100 or so bison, then, are kept in smaller herds in seperate fields from one another.

Though the animals don't get sick often, when they do, the herd helps the sick animal. A group of bison will circle the sick bison, propping it up between them. They'll then walk with it to water, where the sick animal is usually able to hydrate itself back to good health. 

Fascinating!

Now, may I tell you about their mating rituals? (Little readers, cover your ears.)

Female bison require that a bull court with it for a day and a half before mating. None of this sex on the first day nonsense for these ladies. These heiffers have class.

At three years old, females start bearing lil' ones, which Mr. Sayers assured me (as he drove his red, white and blue Hummer with what looked like an M-16 mounted on a tripod in the backseat) are "the cutests little things".

(I have been invited to return to the ranch in a month or so to meet some of the newly-born bison calves. I hope I'm able to see them!)

On my tour of Sayersbrook, I learned about rifle ranges, sporting clays, Jeep off-road competitions, and even about Missouri history. Of course, I also learned a lot about Bison. Bison are not buffalo; their meat is 97% fat free; and you can visit one of only a few dozen large bison ranches in the USA right here in MO. 

New York was starting to catch up on my cow count, but where Bison are concerned, Missouri definitely takes the lead.

MO=1; NY=0

All photos by smalltowngirl