By: Linda Hubalek, owner, Smoky Hill Bison

" First thing at 9 am Patty was walking by the office window and said, "Why

are the buffalo running down the alley?"

"WHAT!?!" was my reaction as I whirled my chair around to the see the last

of them galloping by. They just blasted through a five-wire gate!

Running out to the porch I see Dyllan scrambling to close a back gate he had

just opened to drive down to check water tanks.

Takoda and the cows stopped just past Dyllan, in the alley across the fence

from four "next for the freezer" bulls and jumped, snorted, and carried on,

having a blast at their antics.

Buffalo!! We had all these orders to pack, and the calves and yearling

heifers were playing Tic Tac Toe between paddocks! (This was the first sign

that there was no voltage in their electric fence.)

I drove the pickup into the pasture yelling "Come Esther!!" out the window,

with Dyllan sitting in the back shaking the "treats" bucket.

Esther (and the reluctant herd) was obediently following behind me until a

group of visitors stepped out on the porch to watch their move. That set the

herd off and back down the alley they ran. I tried one more time, but they

knew they were supposed to go back and just didn't want to.

I decided, heck, they would come back when they were thirsty and we went

back inside to get the Father's Day orders ready to ship.

About 2 pm, they came moseying back, and as I shut the gate, here was a

broken wire on it that was too tempting for a calf or heifer and that, with

no voltage, started the whole scenario.

Dyllan fixed the gate, got the voltage back up, and we got the orders done

before UPS and FedEx picked up at the end of the day.

It's never a dull moment when you live with buffalo!