I recently made a trip to Amish country Indiana in Shipshewana, but beforehand, I stopped by Cook’s Bison Ranch, which was 30 minutes southeast of the city. I have never seen bison up close before, so thought this was a perfect opportunity to learn more about these animals going through the fields in a tractor wagon.

Bison chalk board full of messages in front of the entrance

I arrived on a Saturday morning, right when they opened at 10am. The lady at the counter, Sue, was very nice and she was going to be the driver for the day taking us to the bison ranch. Usually, it's $2.50 for a bag of food to to feed the bison, but since there was some food leftover from the last tour, she gave us those bags instead for free.

I hopped on the tractor wagon with a family of 8 and headed out to the fields. It was only minutes before we saw a herd of bison ahead of us and there were tons of babies!! We learned that each adult bison had a baby with them, which was interesting.

The bison started coming towards the tractor and carriage and we started feeding the hungry and friendly animals. There was one particular bison that was a little piggy, Miss Penelope. She wanted all those yummy treats to herself! The baby bison came up to the carriage as well and they were so darn cute!!

As we were feeding the bison, Sue told us a little more about the bison and how the ranch was started. After about 20 minutes of feeding, we headed back to the office and browsed around the shed area where they had little exhibits, picnic tables and fun games for children.

We all had a great time feeding the bison and learned a great deal more about these wonderful animals. I highly recommend visiting here if you're ever in northern Indiana!

xo, Crystal