Bison Business - Where the Bison Roam

Story by Wes Lafortune

On the day I visit Pilatus Farms, Armin Mueller is entertaining unexpected guests at the home he shares with his wife Rita. But it doesn’t take much convincing for him to leave his friends and join me outside at the pasture where hundreds of his nearly 1,300 head of bison are contentedly feeding.

There’s a noticeable glint in Mueller’s eyes and a smile on his lips as we approach the herd of animals he so obviously loves and admires. With their thick coats of brown fur to ward off the sting of the cool breeze it’s easy to imagine that the scene unfolding before my eyes is happening hundreds or thousands of years ago.

These North American Bison (shaggy-coated, powerfully muscular beasts) conjure images of the long-ago West. It’s a scene that harkens to a time when Blackfoot people depended on bison as their sustaining force, for the animals’ rich meat for food and hides for clothing and shelter. History teaches us 30 to 50 million of the creatures once moved across North America’s grasslands. All but approximately 1,000 of those were wiped out by the late 1880s because of massive slaughters conducted by settlers.

Majestic in stature, the animals still capture people’s attention. Linked to the earliest days of the Prairies, it’s possible the bison are what make the west truly the West.

And in 2007, the bison rule the landscape once again – at least that of Pilatus Farms, near the central Alberta town of Bentley, 28 kilometres northwest of Red Deer. The largest land mammal in North America, bison is sometimes called buffalo, after the unrelated Asian and African water buffalo. Whatever you call it, the animal is making a convincing comeback because of a dedicated group of farmers, Mueller among them, and a growing demand for their lean meat.

Mueller is a Swiss-born farmer who moved to Canada in 1975 because of a boyhood dream that first flickered on the silver screen. “When I was young I would watch westerns at the movies,” says Mueller. “Even as a kid I was interested in bison.”

Bringing his Hollywood-inspired fantasies of cowboys and the open range with him from Lucerne, Switzerland, Mueller eventually settled near Bentley where he operates Pilatus Farms Ltd.

Pilatus is named after a 2,119-metre mountain located in Mueller’s homeland. His father ran the family farm at its base. Three decades later, Mueller has managed his own impressive “peak” of sorts by operating a 1,000-hectare farm that has evolved into one of the largest bison wholesale companies in Canada: Canadian Rangeland Bison Inc.

“About 60 per cent of Canada’s bison are in Alberta,” says Mueller as he steps across the land with his faithful dog (a mid-sized farm mutt) close at his heels. “There’s about 150,000 head of bison in this province.” Mueller made the decision to switch from dairy farming to raising bison following his attendance at the 2000 International Bison Conference held in Edmonton. “There was a lot of excitement,” he says.

Mueller’s excitement continues today because of a growing base of consumers who want to eat meat but are also conscious of their health. “It’s all natural,” says Mueller of the hormone-free meat. He explains that because of this method of raising the animals, bison take from 26 to 30 months to reach slaughter weight. And when that time arrives the heifers weigh approximately 400 kilograms and the bulls are 600 kilograms. The animals  are bulky enough to appear docile, until you witness them sprinting easily across fields at speeds approaching that of a galloping horse.

In order to exercise maximum control over every aspect of his animals, Mueller, along with two partners, has opened a processing plant located in Lacombe where bison meat, beef, elk and ostrich is processed.

An experienced entrepreneur, Mueller is just as comfortable developing global marketing strategies as he is working alongside his bison. He markets his products as far away as his native Switzerland where bison was recently featured on the menus of international delegates who attended the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“We sell one third in the US, one third in Europe and one third domestically,” Mueller says. “Bison is often compared to fish because it’s low in fat, low in cholesterol, high in protein and high in iron.”

Maybe that’s why the Canadian Bison Association says that there’s an increasing global demand for bison meat. But Mueller is quick to add, “Yes, it’s healthy, but the reason it’s so popular is because of its taste.”

Captivated by these animals and the care this proud farmer shows for them, I leave Pilatus Farms to make my way to WildWood, a Calgary restaurant where Mueller promises I will be able to sample bison meat that comes directly from his animals.

The brunch menu and its wide variety of egg dishes is tempting, but instead I opt for a bison burger for $12. After a short wait, the food arrives at my table. Soon the waiter returns to ask if everything is all right. All I can manage to do is signal with a smile that everything is more than all right.

What I discover after my first bite of the bison burger is a juicy meat patty that has a satisfying, rich and smoky undertone. It is perfectly complemented by homemade relish and aioli on a fresh Kaiser bun. Now I understand what Mueller was talking about – it’s the taste.

Bison roaming the windswept landscape hold a special place in our collective imagination. And now because of Armin Mueller and the other dedicated bison producers in this province, consumers across North America, and the rest of the globe, can also enjoy this tasty Prairie legend.

Pilatus Farms is located just west of the Travel Alberta region known as Trail of the Buffalo.