Where The Buffalo Roam, Texas Agriculture Thrives

For a herd of animals that’s ultimately headed for the slaughterhouse, the bison on Roam Ranch are part of a remarkably warm and fuzzy fairytale. Less than a year ago, the 450 acres of Texas land that comprise the ranch were all but dead after a century of over-tilling and inadequate recovery time between crop rotations. Rain would fall, but it would simply run off; the dirt was too damaged to absorb even the littlest bits of water. Many of the paddocks were bare, and what few patches of grass did exist were failing to grow and multiply. Today, this piece of Texas Hill Country is in recovery—all thanks to the bison, which have been reintroduced to the area as part of an agricultural experiment spearheaded by Katie Forrest and Taylor Collins, the millennial founders of meat-bar company EPICProvisions. The couple purchased the land last spring (through Epic and its parent company General Mills, and they see it as a living, breathing laboratory for not only their brand, but regenerative agriculture projects around the country. “Land in this condition is often deemed ‘unsalvageable,’” they wrote in a blog postannouncing Roam last June, “and in many circumstances further degenerates with rest—but we are going to prove otherwise.”