Maximizing Forage and Minimizing Grain Intake in Bison Fed for Meat

Maximizing Forage and Minimizing Grain Intake in Bison Fed for Meat

Summary

This trial was designed to determine if extending the forage feeding period for fed bison would alter performance of the animals, cost of production, or final meat product. Four treatments were used with nine participating producers conducting one comparison on each farm for a balanced statistical treatment.

Currently, many bison producers pen bulls at weaning and offer a modest energy diet in a self feeder until animals are ready for market, sometimes longer than one year. Considering the highly seasonal response of bison to feed consumption and gain, and the potential for additive effects of compensatory gain and seasonal effects, this trial was designed to analyze the effects of extending the forage feeding window using four treatments. The control treatment was grain feeding from weaning to market. Treatments 2, 3, and 4 started with hay feeding during the first winter. Grain was introduced in the spring to treatment 2. Treatments 3 and 4 grazed the second summer. Grain was provided to animals in treatment 3 in the fall. Treatment 4 animals received grain in the spring, following a second winter on a hay diet. Grains and feed intake for each respective period, carcass quality, and nutrients in meat are the dependent variables. Results of this trial will be used widely to employ more cost effective feeding regimes for bison bulls in the future.

A significant finding of this project is that extending the forage feeding period in bison bulls decreases the number of days required to feed grain and increases average daily gain during the grain feeding period. This finding is very predictable, but the substantial information remains to be gleaned from the producer-generated data. All of the producer-conducted trials have been completed; however, substantial efforts remains to analyze and interpret the data.

Variables yet to be quantified include feed intake during respective periods, feed per gain, feed costs for each period, carcass quality, and composition of selected cuts from animals in each treatment.