Ranch fulfills lifelong dream

by Jan Manning

"Petite woman, age 52 and single, decides to give up her 28-year urban nursing career and move to Montana to start a bison ranch. Alone, she carves a new life, teaching herself how to build fences, do carpentry, and operate heavy machinery necessary to fulfill her dream of raising a herd of buffalo."

This is the kind of unbelievable fiction that makes good Hollywood movie scripts and Danielle Steele novels. But Terye Gaustad, formerly of Fremont, California, and now residing in Hot Springs, did it for real. Now, just six years after the vision of bison ranching entered her head, she's living her dream.

Gaustad, who grew up in Frenchtown, held fast to her Montana roots even as she worked as an ER night shift nurse for 10 years in California and later served eight years in nursing administration there.

"I knew I wanted to get back to Montana," she says, and bison ranching seemed like a golden opportunity to do so. "It took me 25 years, but I came back."

While still in California, she began researching and attending bison conferences and learning the ropes of her agricultural venture. She even bought two livestock guard dogs in preparation for the big move. The dogs ended up primarily being pets, living indoors in a comfortable suburban home with a backyard pool. But they kept her motivated to stay on her new career track.

She made internet property searches and located a 56-acre parcel outside Hot Springs. Four years ago she purchased it, and the Ring of Horns bison ranch took root. With only the help of her 32-year-old son Jared, Terye built or repaired the fencing, cross-fenced six pastures with hefty five-strand electric fence, and set up an efficient flood irrigation system that would allow for pasture rotation. She purchased and learned to operate the machinery needed for these tasks. She and Jared constructed new sheds and put up a sturdy corral. They got everything in good order before starting their bison herd.

"I wanted to put the effort into doing things right the first time," she says. "That way, we can sleep at night without worrying about the herd."

Gaustad received her "starter herd" of bison in late 2021 and purchased her first bull early the following year. Her herd has now grown to 56, with 11 bulls. "I've watched 12 out of the 17 births here. They have all happened before sundown, which is unusual." She adds, "Even if they're born at night, I don't worry because the whole herd swarms around the cow and calf to protect them from predators." She has one benevolent bull named Frankie who is nicknamed "the midwife," because he always hovers protectively over the newborns and mothers for the first few weeks after a birth.

The end result for the bison is of course to land in consumers' freezers, but the task of butchering won't begin for another year and a half because processing plants are so busy, she explains. In the meantime, she's acquiring bison meat from other wholesale sources in the region in order to get her sales program off the ground. Her best customers to date are the tourists and RV campers who take advantage of her Harvest Host RV campground on the property. Harvest Host is a membership organization for self-contained RVers who choose to visit farms, wineries, orchards and other agricultural-based operations.

"All of our campers have purchased and raved about the bison meat, and they say they can't wait to be able to order some from my own herd," Gaustad beams. Because of the high quality, health benefits and flavor, bison aficionados don't mind paying $13 a pound for the ground meat.

Ranch visitors love to walk up to the electric fence to hand-feed alfalfa cake and even pet the magnificent, seemingly docile giants. Their behavior is in contrast to the annual horror stories of Yellowstone tourists being charged by buffalo. "The problems in Yellowstone usually happen because most visitors are there in calving season [spring/summer] or mating season [late summer/fall] when the animals are already very defensive. Still," she admits, "I try to avoid going into this herd on foot." They're powerful, massive animals who can knock a person down without even trying. "The strong fence is there for a reason," she says.

Her biggest challenge, she says, has been getting fresh water to the herd all year long. Her biggest surprise has been how much hay they eat. She feeds them 100 tons of alfalfa every year, which is supplemented by natural timothy.

Gaustad's Ring of Horns ranch is one of several bison operations in Sanders County. All the ranchers work in cooperation with each other, as they all share the same vision of regenerative Montana land stewardship that can provide the public with a meat source unparalleled in quality.

For videos of the Gaustads at work, and for updates on the status of the herd, visit the Ring of Horns Facebook page.