Bad River Ranches

Location - Fort Pierre, South Dakota

Year Acquired - 1999

Size - 148,000 acres

Cows Exposed - 3,200

Cow to Bull Ratio - 13:1

Maximum Bull Age - 6 years

Management Overview

Located in central South Dakota, Bad River Ranch comprises approximately 148,000 acres of diverse grassland with rolling hills. The Bad River runs through the property; the mouth of which is where Lewis and Clark met the Teton Sioux. The ranch is situated in the mixed grass prairies of central South Dakota and plays a crucial role in bison production and conservation. Recognizing its historical significance for bison and various wildlife species, the property was acquired with the aim of restoring range conditions and conserving native and endangered species alongside bison production. Bad River Ranch boasts one of the largest bison herds in South Dakota, emphasizing ecological and economic sustainability.

Bad River is holistically managed for production and bison are adaptively grazed year-round through 71 permanent pastures and a multitude of temporary paddocks.  To reclaim conventional no-till farm fields, extensive work has been done utilizing poly culture cover crops and high intensity, short duration grazing strategies. This is done with the use of portable water tanks and several temporary single strand reflective poly rope fences.

All ranch employees are trained in low-stress livestock handling techniques which are implemented during every interaction with the bison. This allows for increased flexibility in all our adaptive grazing systems.

Breeding Herd

The main breeding herd for Bad River Ranch is a non-weaning group that currently consists of 1,400 breeding females with plans to grow to 2,200 head in the future. The ranch also supports a grass finished operation consisting of stocker heifers and young open cows.          

Calves / Yearlings

Our calves are weaned in the late fall or early winter.  All heifers are vaccinated with RB51 for Brucellosis.  At weaning the calves are held in large groups and fed hay and cake until the spring green up after which they receive only minimal supplementation. 

They are then grazed in large yearling herds for the summer and fall until going into the breeding herd as replacements or into the on-ranch feeding facilities.

Extensive use of the cake truck also teaches them to respond to its presence and use.  Whenever they are handled and herded on foot or ATVs they are taught to receive and give to pressure.  This “training” that starts at weaning helps them to successfully graze the ranch as yearlings with respect for both humans and controlled pastures. 

Health

The Bad River Ranches bison herd is naïve to Mycoplasma.  The herd is annually vaccinated and has never experienced an outbreak of the disease.