Knights of the Prairie

Written by Colton Jones

The first chilly breeze hit me in the face last week while fixing some fence. Literally and physically. 

Earlier this summer, the harvest crew found themselves gelling together as they overcome the adversities that come with warm season harvests. 

Our cooling equipment works overtime trying to bring 101-degree carcasses down to 30 degrees, all while fighting similar, triple-digit outside temps. The generator that supplies the power to our mobile harvest unit serves as our sole power source all summer long and racks up countless operating hours in the scorching heat. Without it, we risk being forced to pack up and race back to the Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch for more reliable "grid" power. 

The general "remoteness" of the ranches we travel to during summer months require all harvest team members to be a jack of all trades. For example, commercial grade reciprocating saws have required rewiring amid a harvest day, along with plumbing repairs and flat tires from deer antlers hiding in the tall grass of the sandhills. Each setback raises harvest expenses and gnaws at our already slim profit margins. 

But profit margins aren't the reason any of us secretly enjoy the "harvest life". The harvest crew's tenacity and camaraderie stems from the willingness to overcome ANY challenges that may stand in the way of buffalo not dying submersed in the Great Plains prairie. 

As the breeze died down, a familiar "panicky" feeling overcame me like it does during the early fall of every year. I felt unprepared for the potential hell that Dakota winters can unleash. I started working through a mental checklist of things that need to be done before the first hard freeze. 

The panicky feeling is short-lived as I see Art and Robby coming over the hill to help me, as they have finished harvest early for the day. The unrecognized "knights of the prairie" are coming to save me not from physical strain, but from mental fatigue created by the inability to catch up with seasonal tasks. Their arrival reminds me I'm not alone in the winter battle to come. 

No other bison meat producer has been capable of duplicating what we do. Traveling great distances to far away remote areas and battling the extreme Great Plains weather conditions requires a cohesive group of individuals that believe in the greater mission of giving the buffalo dignity in death. Even if that means mental and physical sacrifice.