Alberta Open Farm Days is getting set to celebrate the Year of the Bison when the annual event comes around again on Aug. 19 and 20.
It is fitting then that one of this year’s local tours being offered in Rocky View County is at Glengary Bison Ltd., which is located about 10 kilometres south of Madden.
Owners Gary Sweetnam and Cynthia Austin first established their ranch in 1997 to raise horses. But after a fateful tour of a bison ranch near Sundre soon after moving onto their place, they found the passion of their lives.
It was love at first sight, according to Austin.
“We just kind of stumbled into it,” she recalled. “We had some friends we met on a horse trip. They said 'We raise bison out by Sundre, and you guys should come out and see them.' As soon as we saw (their bison operation), we said, 'This is pretty neat. We think we have to try this.'”
“We were drawn to the magnificence of them,” added Sweetnam, a native of Scotland. “They were pretty spectacular up close.
“And they are easy keepers,” he added. “It’s 90 per cent management and 10 per cent work.”
Following up on Sweetnam’s point, Austin explained the bison cows calve easily without need of any assistance, and they don’t have too many health problems or require special diets or supplements to help them grow.
“The (easy) work aspect outweighed them being a bit wild,” she said.
Austin clarified this point further.
“They are not as easy to work around as (beef) cattle in a close proximity; so you have to be really cognizant of how they are around you at all times,” she explained. “They are super quiet when they want to be, and they move really quickly.”
Right now, the females in the Glengary Bison herd have calves by their sides, and Austin never ceases to be awed by the complete metamorphosis that takes place in these young animals just a few weeks after their birth.
When first born, the bison calves could easily be mistaken for more common beef cattle calves, said Austin, but that stage doesn’t last too long.
“They go from the caramel colour, and gradually you can see – it's like the butterfly or the caterpillar – they start to get darker and develop little nub horns,” she explained. “They then start to hump up. So it is quite an interesting transition.”
Suddenly the cute little caramel calf is long gone, and what arises gradually in its place, Austin said, is the final form of this well-known icon among native prairie beasts.
“There is nothing like having a morning coffee and looking out your window to see a herd of bison walking by,” Austin stated. “It’s pretty spectacular. You can’t buy a view like that.”
It took Sweetnam and Austin about four years to build up their herd, and from the beginning they knew they didn’t want to run a hobby farm with them.
Glengary Bison Ltd. is a working farm and has its own on-site store to sell their bison meat and other products like Saskatoon berries, which they also grow on their land. They also provide bison meat to several specialty meat stores for both humans and pets.
“Once the meat gets inspected, we have a butcher that comes in to cut it up for us,” explained Sweetnam. “We sell it out of here in our store, and it sells really well.”
Austin said bison meat is known to be healthy and nutritious, with a similar taste to beef and a lower fat content.
“It tastes really close to beef, and I think it is even a little bit nicer,” she said. “There are also the health aspects … Bison is recognized by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada as one of the go-to proteins to eat. It is very low in fat. It is 2.4 grams of fat per 100 grams … (Bison) is super lean.”
While bison meat is a big part of their cottage industry business and helps pay the bills, it is not the main point for Glengary Bison’s existence. For Sweetnam and Austin, it is all about the preservation and enjoyment of this iconic western Canadian animal, and sharing their love of bison with others.
Sweetnam and Austin are always generous in allowing visitors out to their bison ranch, and often have visitors coming in to see their herd from all over the world. They get international and Canadian visitors who want to experience bison while visiting the Calgary region, or travelling through on family vacations.
Being located only 30 minutes from Calgary has made their farm a popular destination spot for those wanting to see bison up close and personal for the first time.
“They have maybe seen them only on television or in a zoo perhaps,” Austin explained. “To get out there and actually be close to them like you experience here, people tend to go away with a sense that, ‘Wow, they are quite majestic.’”
Glengary Bison Ltd. will only be open to the public on Saturday, Aug. 19 for Alberta Open Farm Days this year as the ranch hosts another unrelated event on the Sunday. For those wanting to have a bison experience like no other in the region on Aug. 19, the gates open at 10 a.m. and close at 4 p.m.
According to Austin, a big part of the visitor experience at Glengary Bison during Alberta Open Farm Days is a special presentation by Mount Royal University’s Associate Vice-President of Indigenization and Decolonization Dr. Linda Manyguns, who is also a traditional knowledge keeper for the Blackfoot people. Manyguns will set up a teepee and be present at Glengary Bison all day to answer questions about her culture and the Blackfoot's special relationship with the bison over millennia.
“That’s such an important part of the bison story,” said Austin. “That was many of these First Nations’ [main] food source.”
For more information on Glengary Bison Ltd. visit glengarybison.com.
For more information on Alberta Open Farm Days visit albertaopenfarmdays.ca or see the story on page x.
