The recap was written by Doc Woerner, an MBA Member at Large.

With spring less than one week away, our association of North American buffalo lovers and ranchers gathered at the Gran Tree Inn, Bozeman, on March 14, 15, and 16 for a great weekend of camaraderie, education, good food, and fun.

The first agenda item was a board meeting starting at about 2:30 PM. All interested members were welcome to attend.

Most folks began arriving around 4 PM, and our 26th annual meeting of the MBA officially kicked off at 4:30.

Ty Stubblefield from Wild Bison Ranch updated us on current legislation to include “domestic bison” coverage in the state livestock predator loss mitigation program. The Montana House Ag Committee passed the bill unanimously, and now it moves on to the Senate.

Big Sky Land Management sponsored our conference. Over tasty bison burgers, we learned about the history of invasive conifers and how their services can increase range land productivity.

After supper, we transitioned into our evening program, which included presentations by Mike Honeycutt of the Montana Department of Livestock and Dr. Tahnee Szymanski of the Montana State Veterinarian’s office.

Following that, we welcomed Jim Matheson from our National Bison Association, who gave us an interesting report on past, present, and future happenings at the NBA.

Conversations continued, and our meeting adjourned around 8:30 PM.

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Saturday morning started our general meeting. This year’s winter conference theme was Bison Stewardship in the Twenty-First Century.

The kick-off presentation was titled Bison Classification by State and Legal Impacts by Dr Dean Luek. He began his talk by stating that “bison are unique in modern North American wildlife in that they are mostly governed by the law of domestic animals.” Professor Lueck’s talk was informative and gave us all a critical perspective on bison ranching of privately owned animals and management and conservation of tribal and wild bison.

Rounding out the morning, we welcomed Tom Bragg, DVM, veterinarian for Turner Ranches. Dr Bragg oversees all animal health-related issues for the ranches and administers the Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture. Tom told “his story ‘and offered essential concepts related to ranch biosecurity, plus health of both animals and landscapes.

Box lunches were delicious, allowing us to converse and browse the tempting items for our upcoming evening silent auction.

Also, during lunch, AJ Larson and Sean Herrick of Hubbard Feeds informed us about organic sources of mineral supplementation.

Our business meeting followed lunch with the 2024 fiscal report, 2025 budget, website project, and board member elections.

The afternoon program returned to the theme of bison stewardship with two excellent personal bison ranch stories:

1. Tanah Whitemore from Sacred Ground International

2. Brandon and Trish Siemion from Big Horn Bison

We finished the afternoon with an Interactive Speakers Panel hosted by Dr. Tom, Tanah, Brandon, and Trish. It was a perfect time for questions, comments, and insights from our presenters and the audience!

A no-host bar, steak dinner, great conversation, and the silent auction finished a perfect day.

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Early Sunday, March 16, old and newly elected board members met for a brief board meeting. Following that gathering was a field trip to the Flying D Ranch corrals, where Dr. Bragg and Joel Lemons, The Ranch Manager, explained the working corrals and pen system on-site.