Every herd starts somewhere. Ours started with 24 animals from Bitterroot Bison, just up the road, in the spring of 2023.

It's hard to describe how it feels to watch bison step onto your land for the first time. Excited, yes. Nervous, definitely. Mostly, though, it felt like the start of a responsibility that would shape the next chapter of our lives.

Who arrived

Our founding herd was made up of:

• 1 yearling bull

• 2 bull calves

• 4 yearling heifers

• 17 heifer calves

If you're new to ranching terms, here's what that means. A yearling is an animal roughly a year old. A heifer is a young female that hasn't yet had a calf. A bull calf is a young male. So the bulk of our herd was young females: the animals that, as they mature, will grow the herd one calf at a time.

Why start with mostly young heifers?

Starting a herd is a long game. Bison mature more slowly than most cattle, and a heifer usually won't have her first calf until she's around two or three years old. By starting with a young, mostly female group, we gave ourselves time: time to learn how bison behave, how they use our pastures, how they handle a Bitterroot winter, and how to care for them well before the herd begins to grow on its own.

It also meant our animals would grow up on this land. They'd learn our fences, our water, our grass and our seasons from the start.

The first days

What we can tell you is that bison don't need much encouragement to explore. Once they're settled, they move together as a group, grazing and keeping an eye on everything around them. Within a short time, they start to establish favorite spots: a place to rest, a place to graze, a patch of dirt to roll in.

That rolling is called wallowing, and it's one of the first things people ask us about. Bison roll in dust and dirt to shed loose hair, keep insects off and, as best anyone can tell, simply because it feels good. Before long, our pastures had their first wallows, shallow bowls in the ground that told us the herd was making itself at home.

Learning to read the herd

One of the biggest surprises for us was how much there is to watch. Bison communicate constantly through body language: the position of the tail, the way they hold their heads, how closely they bunch together. A raised tail can mean excitement or alarm. A herd that suddenly tightens up is paying attention to something.

Bison are not pets, and they're not cattle. They're wild at heart, powerful and fast. A full-grown bison can run surprisingly quickly and turn on a dime. Respecting that is the first rule of the ranch. We work with them calmly and patiently, and we give them space.

Numbers and names

Every animal in the herd wears an ear tag with a number. It's how ranchers keep track of each animal: health records, age, and lineage over time. And yes, if you look closely at some of our photos, you'll spot a tag reading 24.

Why it matters

Those first 24 bison are more than a starting number. They're the foundation of everything we hope Triple T Bison becomes. Every calf born on this ranch will trace back to them. Every decision we make about pasture, fencing, water and care is ultimately about giving them, and the generations after them, a good life on good land.

We're still a young herd and a young ranch. But when we look out over the pasture and see them grazing with the mountains behind them, it feels like the start of something that's going to last.

Thanks for following along.