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My dad was a beef cattle farmer. Beef cows are large animals - 800 pounds isn’t unusual - and if you accidentally get between a mama cow and her calf she can ki

My dad was a beef cattle farmer. Beef cows are large animals - 800 pounds isn’t unusual - and if you accidentally get between a mama cow and her calf she can kill you. Dad got thrown more than once that way. He once investigated raising bison. Doing his due diligence, he visited a bison farm. The fences were telephone poles drilled ten feet in the ground, and highway guardrail instead of wire. Dad backed away slowly and stuck to Black Angus.

WhiskeyJack55 7y ago
A friend's parent raises bison. He was checking the herd out from horseback. The bull decided "fuck you in particular" and charged. Bison can hit 65 km/h. Average horse with rider galloping is ~45km/h. He would have been in trouble if his dog didn't distract it in time for him to get away.
protomyth 7y ago
The tribe here uses regular cattle fences. As far as I know only two juveniles have gotten out and that was at an entrance.
- mitchty 7y ago
  My godfather has a bison ranch, one of the larger ones. Regular fences work, as guidance really. If a bison wants to get through, they're weak as water and won't stop them. You need telephone post thickness fence preferably cemented into the ground if you want to really stop a bison from getting out. If they are in stampede mode, you're screwed, would have to drive I beams into the ground. Bison treat fences as guidelines really, they'll move around it if they're not in the mood to care, but if they are in a "screw this" mood, that fence is going down. Note, when I say regular cattle fence, I mean 8 foot posts driven into the ground, with barb wire every foot to 8 inches apart. Anything less and they tend to work their way through it trying to get at grass on the other side and then no more fence. And that wire has to be taut, like string on a guitar play a note tight. As an anecdote, even with fences like that, he had about 4-5 bison that escaped. Each one got put down to make sure the rest of the herd didn't get escape into their blood.

WhiskeyJack55 7y ago

A friend's parent raises bison. He was checking the herd out from horseback. The bull decided "fuck you in particular" and charged. Bison can hit 65 km/h. Average horse with rider galloping is ~45km/h. He would have been in trouble if his dog didn't distract it in time for him to get away.

protomyth 7y ago

The tribe here uses regular cattle fences. As far as I know only two juveniles have gotten out and that was at an entrance.

mitchty 7y ago
My godfather has a bison ranch, one of the larger ones. Regular fences work, as guidance really. If a bison wants to get through, they're weak as water and won't stop them. You need telephone post thickness fence preferably cemented into the ground if you want to really stop a bison from getting out. If they are in stampede mode, you're screwed, would have to drive I beams into the ground. Bison treat fences as guidelines really, they'll move around it if they're not in the mood to care, but if they are in a "screw this" mood, that fence is going down. Note, when I say regular cattle fence, I mean 8 foot posts driven into the ground, with barb wire every foot to 8 inches apart. Anything less and they tend to work their way through it trying to get at grass on the other side and then no more fence. And that wire has to be taut, like string on a guitar play a note tight. As an anecdote, even with fences like that, he had about 4-5 bison that escaped. Each one got put down to make sure the rest of the herd didn't get escape into their blood.