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Seventeen bison were sold Friday, Sept. 25, during the Blue Mounds State Park’s annual bison sale.
The 16 yearlings and one 2-year-old bull were auctioned to the highest bidders for commercial use or breeding. Prices averaged $1,500 for heifers and $2,200 for bulls.
Park manager Chris Ingebretsen said the number of bison offered for sale this year “was a little short.”
About two dozen young stock from the state park’s herd are sold each year, a number based on pasture conditions. Because the young stock were more uncooperative than usual, fewer animals were culled from the main herd.
“We didn’t want to continue to stress them,” Ingebretsen said.
Along with the culling process, each bison is well checked by veterinarians.
Proceeds from the sale benefit the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) parks and trails division.
Eight local bison join the Mankato herd
While local park officials were selling 17 purebred bison to the public, eight Blue Mounds bison were taken to a developing bison herd at Minneopa State Park near Mankato.
On Tuesday, while sorting bison for its annual sale, local park officials selected eight animals for the trip to Mankato. Two adult cows and their calves, three yearlings and one bred 2-year-old cow were selected.
On Friday the eight were released from holding pens into Minneopa’s 330-acre bison range.
The release was a result of a partnership between the DNR and the Minnesota Zoo in an effort to preserve the American bison.
The bison were introduced to the Blue Mounds State Park in 1961, and genetic tests performed from 2001 to 2013 showed the animals to be largely free of any genetic crossbreeding with cattle, making them rare.
Of the more than 500,000 bison in North America, fewer than 30,000 fit into this category.
The DNR and the Minnesota Zoo are growing the 90 head at the Blue Mounds State Park into a 500-animal herd occupying several park locations.
Minneopa State Park is the first of these additional locations.