Coopersburg Farm Brings Bison Meat to Local Tables

The late Lehigh Valley philanthropist General Harry C. Trexler saved a herd of bison in his Trexler Lehigh County Game Preserve when the species was endangered in the early 20th Century.

Ted Turner, television mogul and philanthropist, owns 50,000 bison on several ranches, with some going to restaurants.

And Rod Wieder, who calls his company "Backyard Bison," is a Coopersburg farmer who owns more than 50 bison.

Wieder is no rich philanthropist. He earns a living by selling the unusual meat at his 685 Crowthers Road farm and various farm markets in eastern Pennsylvania. Backyard Bison claims to be the only vendor selling bison meat in those markets. The farm has a Coopersburg mailing address, but is in Springfield.

“The total North American population was down to about 1,000 bison at one time,” said Wieder, working his booth at the Emmaus Farmers’ Market on a recent Sunday afternoon. “The population is up to half a million now, and soon to be a million.

“They need the demand for meat to grow and then people can afford to grow their herds. They won’t be domesticated for a long time. They are wild animals.”

After bison nearly became extinct in Trexler’s day, there is now a food market for bison -- some call them American Plains Buffalo. Herds were allowed to grow in the west over the last century, gradually building up the numbers so that bison can again be seen as a food source.

“The big thing is they have bred for a number of years now,” Wieder said. “They are the fastest growing for production (among farm animals).”

Bison meat, Wieder said, can be purchased at Weis and Giant markets in the Lehigh Valley, and The Burgery Company in Emmaus offers two bison-meat sandwiches -- the Mountain Hawk for $10.45 and the Thundering Herd for $10.95.

A Burgery Original -- made with beef -- goes for $6.25. So bison is seen as a specialty.

Wieder exclusively sells his bison meat at the Emmaus, Phoenixville, Havertown and SteelStacks in Bethlehem farmers markets. He and his family -- daughters Alison , Emily, and Carly, and wife, Becki --are Backyard Bison’s only “employees."

As depicted in the 1990 movie Dances With Wolves, the Sioux and other Indian tribes hunted and lived off the bison on the American Plains. The intruding “white men” used them for their skins only and exported hundreds of thousands of skins to Europe.

“The government really encouraged the killing of bison because it was a military strategy,” Wieder said. “The Indians were beating us. The bison was everything to Indians -- food, shelter and even their spirituality.

“The military strategy was that by wiping out the bison herd, that would crush the spirit of the Indians. They knew that if they got rid of their bison, it would be a lot easier to beat the Indians.”

Wieder said his interest in bison started about 12 years ago, when he wanted to have a grazing animal on his grandmother’s 25-acre farm in Coopersburg and nearby leased property. He purchased his first bison from a breeder in North Dakota and was on his way.

“I picked bison because they are so hearty and aren’t demystified by humans,” he said. “They have natural immunity to a lot of diseases. Bison meat is a lot leaner than beef, there are no hormones, no antibiotics. People like the flavor better than beef. It has lots of iron and protein. It’s really good."

Here are some other Bison facts, according to Wieder, who invites the public to visit his Coopersburg farm to learn more and eat bison:

• Bison are North America’s largest land mammal. Some bulls grow to weigh over a ton.
• Bison can live 30 to 40 years, and the cows will typically have one calf a year.
• The leaders of the herds are the old grandmother cows.
• Bison are very playful. Sometimes they love to just run around. Bison also like to play king-of-the-mountain.
• When a bison gets mad, it raises its tail straight up in the air.
• Bison don't moo. They grunt and roar.