Huge bison feedlot planned near Pierce

PIERCE – What could be the largest buffalo finish-feeding operation in the state is seeking approval from Weld County to set up about five miles east of Pierce.

Ault-based Hasbrouck Holdings LLC filed an application for a special review permit on June 16 to feed “15,000 head of buffalo or 24,000 head of cattle or any combination thereof not to exceed 24,000 animals on site” for an operation to be known as “Double J Bison Feedlot.”

And that’s a lot of animals, humps or not.

“It would be one of the biggest, and could be even the biggest, in the state at full build-out,´ said Cody Hollingsworth with Ag Professionals in Longmont. Ag Professionals is handling the permitting process and public relations for Jay Hasbrouck, principal of Hasbrouck Holdings and owner of Double J Meatpacking in Pierce.

Hasbrouck did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The 152-acre site is now open land on the Colorado high plains just west of the Pawnee National Grassland. About 175 years ago, vast herds of bison roamed these mostly flat lands, providing food, clothing and shelter for Native American tribes.

Much has changed since then. The tribes are gone and so are the wild herds, but the bison is making a comeback.

Consumers have begun to develop a taste for the prairie beast, which offers a leaner and chemical-free meat compared to its bovine cousin.

“What we’ve seen in the last few years is bison meat has really caught on as the public’s become aware of it,´ said Jim Matheson, assistant director of the Denver-based National Bison Association. “It’s a very natural kind of meat, very lean and without any steroids or growth hormones.”

Once hunted almost to extinction, American bison numbers have rebounded to about 250,000, with an approximately equal number being raised on Canadian ranches.

Filling a need

Hasbrouck Holdings’ proposal calls for an operation that would include buffalo pens, an office, commodity sheds and a weighing scale. Between six and 10 employees would staff the operation, which would be ready to operate within the next two years.

Hollingsworth said the stock would come from producers throughout Colorado and the region to be fed corn, alfalfa and grass hay for 90 days before slaughter. He said the proposed operation would fill a need in the buffalo-ranching industry.

“There’s a need for buffalo feeding with producers,” Hollingsworth said. “Double J Meatpacking is already one of the largest buffalo-processing facilities in the United States and they saw a need to have a feeding operation near the plant,” he said.

The feeding site and the slaughter facility are within 10 miles of each other.

Weld County zoning allows a maximum of four cattle/bison per acre to be kept in a feedlot without a special permit. The Hasbrouck Holdings proposal calls for about 100 animals per acre at full build-out.

Hollingsworth said bison need a little more room than cattle, given their more flighty nature. So is 100 animals per acre a little tight?

“That does seem high,´ said Matheson, but he stopped short of saying it would be too crowded. It would depend on the individual operation and how it was set up, he said.

Chris Gathman, Weld County planner, said the county has no limit on the size of feedlots. He said the proposal, if approved, would be the first of its kind in Weld County.

Gathman said the proposal must next be heard by the Weld County Planning Commission, with a likely but still tentative hearing date of Sept. 2.

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