Our bison spend 365 days a year outside on pasture. They walk, roam, wallow, drink from creeks and springs, eat a variety of grasses and forbs, and watch the sun rise and set each day outside on the land. This makes for extremely healthy animals – and extremely healthy, delicious, and nutritious meat.
When it comes time to kill one of our bison for its meat, we harvest each animal with care, respect, and grace. Instead of the normal practice of shipping animals to a slaughterhouse (or to a confined feedlot and then a slaughterhouse, which is what the vast majority of the bison industry does), we “field-harvest” our animals on the ranch.
Field-harvesting entails driving into one of our pastures (which we do all the time, so this is nothing new for our animals), getting close to a bison, and then shooting it in the head at close range with a rifle. While this might sound intense (and it is), the result is that the bison feels no pain and endures no stress. It is calmly standing there in the pasture one minute, and then one carefully aimed shot instantaneously incapacitates the animal.
No stress. No pain. No feedlots. No confinement.
We do this with great intention – and great awareness and appreciation that our food comes from somewhere very tangible and real, and eating food has an impact.
Following field-harvest, we take the bison to Amsterdam Meat Shop, located just west of Bozeman. Started in 1949, Amsterdam is the best meat processing facility in southwest Montana. There, the bison carcass will be dry-aged for a number of days. The dry-aging process helps create more flavorful and tender meat. Working closely with Amsterdam Meat Shop has allowed us to develop an incredible relationship with the great people that work there — and we all share the same goal of doing everything possible to put the most amazing bison meat on your dinner plate. A rancher’s relationship with their meat processor is incredibly important, and we are so grateful for the excellent relationship we have with Amsterdam Meat Shop.
Following the dry-aging process, the meat is cut, wrapped, labeled, and boxed.
The result is delicious and healthy bison meat – with no stress endured by the bison and no stress affecting the quality of the meat – that we are incredibly grateful for.
It’s a lot more work, and there are more variables to control, but humanely field-harvesting our bison on our ranch – their home – and then working with a small, local, high-quality meat processor is one of the core values of North Bridger Bison.
It’s one of the many things that sets us apart from the conventional meat you are used to. (And, yes, that includes conventional “organic” and conventional “grassfed” meat you can find at your local Whole Foods or organic grocery store.)
We do not engage in cognitive dissonance here at North Bridger Bison. We pride ourselves on fierce rationalism. Eating food has impacts, and we take great pride in providing delicious, healthy, humanely field-harvested bison meat to people who want to eat dinner with their eyes wide open, more connected to their food, more connected to the land.
If this appeals to you, place your deposit for a quarter, half, or whole bison today.