Working with
HOW DUSTY BAKER GREW HIS BISON HERD
I
f you’ve been around YouTube lately, you know there’s a large and vibrant farming community, with a wide variety of unique and interesting views into the life of a homesteader. But there’s one type of farming you won’t see much of - and that’s Bison. Dusty Baker wanted to change that. He started his channel, Cross Timbers Bison, in 2018 to help show this amazing animal to the world. His channel chronicles his entire journey from starting the herd all the way through raising them and working them on his farm. Viewers delight at seeing these creatures in action, especially the stars of the channel - Dunbar, Eleanor, and Big Joe. Dusty shares with us the complete story of Cross Timbers Bison. What was the inspiration for the channel, what are the challenges of raising such a rare animal? And just who starts a bison farm in this day and age anyway? Let’s meet Dusty, and let him tell you all about it.
WHO IS DUSTY BAKER?
I
grew up in the country, farming and being again. And at that time, I met my wife. And we talked about, “Hey, I want around livestock. I grew up in Sulphur, Oklahoma, and the Nato get back to that country life, we miss it so much.” And so we threw the tional Park is there. One of the National idea about raising our own bison herd. Parks is Chickasaw National Recreation Area. In 2018, I did a lot of research. I contacted And they’ve always had bison there. Gerald Parsons, a guy I always look up to and In high school, my Oklahoma history teachwork with about 30 minutes or so from the farm er’s husband was the chief of resource managetoday. I told him I was thinking about getting ment at the National Park. He was in charge into this, I’ve got a place that’s pretty much ready of the bison, wildlife population research and to go. And he said, “Well, I’ve got five right here all that. So I got an awesome opportunity to for you if you want.” And I was just blown away become a summer hand, a biological technician at that. for the National Park Service. He had one bull, five yearlings, and four yearOne of my first jobs was to take care of the biling heifers. And he said, “Here you go.” And so son, make sure they had water, give them some we gathered some money up, and about a month cubes every now and then, hang out with them, later, got the trailer and we went and picked check them, make sure their babies were okay. them up, brought them home, and that’s how we And so I did that for four summers, and that was started raising bison. DEJAY ARMS PHOTOGRAPHY kind of my first step being hands on with the So it’s kind of a crazy deal we just literally just •• Dusty and Marisa Baker bison. And so I’ve got a lot of good stories there, jumped in. My wife was very supportive of me
you know, hanging out with them. I graduated, and actually became a teacher and coach down in Texas for five years or so. And then I moved back to Oklahoma, and started teaching
52
and we want to do this thing together. It started in May of 2018, and now we’ve got a herd of 27 started. It’s been a journey, a lot of learning for sure.