A pair of Manitoba brothers stumbled across a remarkable animal this summer — one they had last seen a decade ago under extraordinary circumstances.
Ten years ago, Ken and Don Crawford were visiting a Hereford cattle operation in Alberta when they heard the story of an unusual birth. A bull buffalo had escaped its enclosure and found its way into a Hereford pasture. In that single day, it bred with a cow.
Months later, the cow struggled during calving, prompting the rancher to call in a veterinarian. A caesarean section was performed, and a very large calf — half buffalo, half Hereford — was delivered.
“It was incredible to see,” said Ken Crawford. “Nobody expected the calf would even survive.”
Because of genetic differences between the two species, calves like this are almost always sterile and cannot be used for breeding. For that reason, many are kept as novelties or raised for meat rather than as herd animals.
Fast-forward a decade and the brothers were back in central Alberta, seeking directions to another farm when they noticed an unusually large animal standing in a pasture. Curious, they asked a rancher friend about it the following day.
“He just laughed and said, ‘I know exactly which one you mean,’” recalled Don Crawford.
The rancher took them out on a side-by-side to the pasture, where they came face to face with the same calf they had first encountered years earlier. Now fully grown, the rare crossbreed tips the scales at about 2,500 pounds.
What are the odds, the Crawfords mused, of meeting the animal again after so many years — not only alive and thriving but kept as a kind of pet?
“It was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime things,” Ken said. “To see it again all grown up — you couldn’t script a story like that.”
What is a buffalo-cattle hybrid?
Buffalo-cattle hybrids, sometimes known as “beefalo” or “cattalo,” are rare crossbreeds resulting from a mating between a buffalo and domestic cattle.
While ranchers in North America experimented with creating hybrids in the late 1800s and early 1900s in hopes of producing a hardier animal with good beef qualities, natural occurrences remain uncommon.
Hybrids typically inherit the size and strength of a buffalo along with the temperament and beef traits of cattle. Mature bulls can weigh well over 2,000 pounds.
Because of genetic incompatibility, most hybrids are born sterile and cannot reproduce, limiting their long-term use in breeding programs.
Though some commercial herds of beefalo exist in Canada and the United States, most accidental hybrids are one-off stories that spark local fascination — much like the Crawford brothers’ chance reunion.
