Local farmers are combining agriculture, business, and their Metis heritage into one big dream project.

Jason and Erin Boily started Iron Head Bison Ranch just east of Richer 2017. Erin admits it isn't the sort of thing most people strive to do in life, but they have been thinking about it for a while now.

The Boilys purchased their first bison herd in 2018.“It is a little unconventional but it is a dream of ours to be able to have a bison farm and now we are living the dream. We are Metis, both my husband and I, and bison are a very important part of our history and that is the reason why we went in that direction with bison.”

Boily says bison meat is also healthy and lean which was a contributing factor to her interest.

Jason Boily says starting a farm from scratch is almost unheard of these days and admits it is incredibly challenging, but he notes it does give you the opportunity to design everything from the ground up.

“So far it has been going great. In 2017, we purchased 500 acres, in 2018 we put down our first cows and bull, we bought another herd in 2019 and then we developed the rest of our land. We've laid down 65,000 board feet of lumber for handling facilities and we've got about 11.5 miles of fence down now and we 7 different pastures where we rotate graze the animals.”

Erin quit her job and began working on the ranch full-time last fall, however, Jason says he still works a two-weeks-on and two-weeks-off schedule in Alberta.

“My father has been a wonderful help to us, he's farmed his whole life and has been helping us so when I am away for two weeks, he takes care of the herds, he goes and checks fence lines, he feeds, he waters, and then when I am back we are able to do larger-scale work.”

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Erin Boily says her role on the ranch is more on the business and product development side of things.

Iron Head Bison Ranch markets a wide variety of products“We utilize the whole animal so when we are processing the animal, we get the robes made in the winter, we get the leather made in the summer, we are going to be getting some mitts made here in the next week. We use the bones, we do soup bones, dog bones, we make steaks, pepperettes, and sausages, so we really have a huge variety from our animals.”

Erin says all of their animals are processed in proper, government-inspected facilities but they do a lot of their own retail and marketing.

Jason says he hopes the farm will be able to support him full-time in the very near future. He adds he is excited to bring this piece of heritage and history to the Southeast.

“For us, it is very exciting because it is part of our heritage as Metis people. It really gets us back to being earth people where we are able to utilize the land and redevelop it with bison because they are the best conservation animals out there.”