Peggy Ladd’s life has been turned upside down since her bison wandered off her farm on April 5.
Ladd, the owner of Klondike Bison and Bee off Klondike Road south of De Soto, was driving to her farm from her home in St. Louis that day and was 10 minutes away when a neighbor called to tell her some of her bison were loose and had been spotted on the road.
Six to be exact. Each of the boys weighs about 1,000 pounds, Ladd said.
She said a storm downed a large tree limb that fell on a fence on the farm, allowing the bison to escape.
Ladd soon got another report that the bison were spotted behind a neighbor’s barn, but by the time she arrived, they had disappeared.
For the next day and a half, she and some of her neighbors and family members searched the rural area for the bison, and Ladd repeatedly called the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to check if anyone had seen the large animals along the road or near someone’s house.
She discovered April 6 that the bison found their “own little utopia far off the road” with lush grass and plenty of water to drink about 2 miles away. There were no other livestock there and there was plenty of open space.
She believed they would stay there long enough for her to lure them with treats to a temporary corral where they could stay until she could arrange to have them hauled back to her farm where she has another approximately 30 bison.
Ladd said she knew she would have to take her time to lure them because “they are like scared little kids,” and with too much pressure they will run or fight.
She and a wrangler set up one small corral over the past weekend, and the bison took the treats she offered, but they were suspicious and stayed away from the corral.
After that, she hoped to “throw up a really big fence,” but the bison wandered off that field at about 12:40 a.m. Monday.
Ladd knows because she was there watching.
“They decided it was time to move,” she said, adding she does not know why.
She heard reports that they crossed Hwy. E and they were last spotted near Hardin Road.
Initially, they started in the direction of her farm but then changed course.
On Tuesday morning, Ladd asked residents in the area to contact the Sheriff’s Office if they saw the bison. Residents should not approach them as they are very large animals and are easily spooked.
She also asks residents in the area to check their trail cameras.
“If you have downed fences or gates open, you may have a visitor,” she said.
Ladd believes the bison move mostly at night or in the early morning hours, and they walk very quietly, which is why there have been few sightings.
She believes during the day, they rest in the shade.
Ladd hopes the bison have found another large field to stay put for a while or wander home. They could be in southern Jefferson County or northern St. Francois County. They could have wandered to the Big River, she said.
Ladd has received help from the community and from professional wranglers. She planned to have someone with a plane fly over the area Tuesday afternoon but suspected the bison would be camouflaged by the trees.
She planned to meet with as many property owners as possible on Tuesday afternoon, including going to the Valles Mines Co. property.
Another option was to use a heat-seeking drone, Ladd said.
On Facebook, Ladd has thanked her neighbors and everyone who have helped with the serarch.
Besides selling bison meat, Ladd offers one-hour private tours of her farm so people can get up-close (or as close as they want) to the bison and their babies. A tour for a vehicle load of people is $100. Those who want a tour are asked to contact Ladd to arrange one.
She said the breeding herd is pretty docile and she can hand-feed the bison alfalfa cubes, which they love. Of course, those tours are on pause while she wrangles the wayward six back to her farm.
Klondike Bison and Bee is the reinvention of Ladd’s family beef farm, which began in 1959, according to its website.
“After our parents passed, we thought long and far about what we could do with these 150 acres that had not been put into use (beyond producing small amounts of hay) since 1993,” Ladd said.
She said she began researching bison and then started acquiring them in fall 2019. Bison meat processing began two years ago.
Ladd also raises bees on the farm.
For more information, find Klondike Bison and Bee on Facebook or visit KlondikeBison.com.