Herd of American bison looking for a new place to roam

By Gary Cruden
Bison: The herd could double in size by the end of the year.Gary Cruden

The owners of Scotland’s only commercial bison herd is looking for a new home for their animals to cope with the growing demand for its meat.

Scott Shand and his wife, Shelagh, have established a herd of more than 40 American plains bison at a farm at Muchalls, near Stonehaven.

The couple launched their company Caledonian Bison into the commercial market in 2010, selling everything from bison burgers and sausages to steaks and mince. 

However, the herd is poised to grow in size in the coming months and could soon double to 80 animals. The expansion means that the animals will need a much bigger area to roam and graze.

Mrs Shand said: "We’re hoping with this years calves and bringing up more breeding stock from England that the herd will grow to about 80. We’re bringing up 14 or 15 animals that will be breeding stock and some of them could have calves as well.

"We need to find somewhere else as new premises. We lease where we are and that’s coming to an end.

"We’d like to stay in the area but we’re looking more at hill land. It could be rough grazing areas that aren't utilised for other things. We've put a couple of appeals out but we need to be able put fencing and things in."

Mrs Shand said the public response to the meat and sales had prompted the latest expansion and that in the future the herd could include more than 100 bison. The company is due to take part in the Grampian Food Forum Innovation Awards for the first time next month.

"It all depends on our next move and the space we have. An ideal for us would be to have a herd of well over 100 animals, that would be the ideal but it’s trying to get that next step and that is finding somewhere to go," Mrs Shand added.

"We just feel that with the meat sales going so well that we’d like to expand. We could wait and expand with natural calving the way we have but bringing in breeding stock will accelerate that a bit more.

"The reaction has been really, really good and we have quite a few repeat customers. The majority is sold before we go to cull and we can send it out immediately upon culling and hanging."

The new animals are due to arrive at the Muchalls site late next month.

IN DETAIL