[Scott] As soon as I come upon them I just can feel the hairs on the back of my neck,
heart rate, everything is just going.
That was it, I was hooked.
[Daughter] Oh so Zoey's Bison. [Wife] Are they Zoey's Bison?
[Daughter] Yeeeah [Scott] Look at them all through T line.
That's amazing...
Just everywhere you look there's hundreds of them.
[Bison hoofs stamping]
I'd been involved in farming, I enjoyed working with live stock.
I had seen bits and pieces on the internet
and whats happened now in North America. And I thought, well this is ideally suited for
the hills in and around the Northeast of Scotland.
I just fell for the thought, I wanted a heard of bison.
*Tsk tsk* hey Higgs come on. *Tsk tsk* Hey Higgs.
[Wife] Look the bison over the hill. [Daughter] Oh yeah!
[Wife] There's been several times over the years where I've wondered if we did the right
thing by even starting this.
The government makes statements about getting new blood into
farming, something sustainable, something organic.
And yet because we were something so different
nobody in the system knew how to deal with us. They admitted that they had set us up
as if we were a safari park. We had to have sharp shooters that could be called on in
the event of a break out.
- They're not dangerous but obviously
you're on your guard all the time.
But then again, that's the charm of them.
Ehm...
[Bison grunt]
[Loud whistle]
- Come on!
[Whistle]
*Tsk tsk* Hey Higgs.
They are destined for meat at the end of the day but
I always hope that I give them the best life they could have.
- There were a lot of health problems to start with. Loosing several of the heard.
By the time we'd all invested thousands of pounds
I had reached the limit of the amount of money that I wanted to put in, but our Scott
wanted to develop the heard and therefore he wanted to buy more bison.
Any normal business farmer would have drawn a line under the project about three years ago,
because it just wan't making money
and he was pouring all his end and their hard earned money into it.
So I don't actually know what keeps him going.
[Wife] At the moment Scott is working night shift for twelve hours at a time, seven days a week.
Moving the bison business forward has to be done out with that.
[Scott] They can deal with the cold but they can't deal with damp and wet.
We're sacrificing more and more all the time because of the weather and the conditions.
But it's not a simple process of just moving animals,
we're contained on our license.
Our lease has run out.
We've probably got a few months to sustain the heard financially
If I was speaking another young man who was in his late 20's early 30's
I would just say to him, don't get involved in this.
[Mother] They've been a part of the childen's life since they were born.
So that is going to be strange.
[Loud whistle]
[Bison breathing]
[Car engine starts]
- Um, gosh, am I a fan of the bison? I mean
I think I've become a fan of the bison. Um, they're very interesting breed.
They are capable of producing very good product, the end finished animal.
We'll have plenty of space here,
so I think the only thing they'll miss is the view of the sea
[Daughters] They're coming [laughs]
- Whoa! - Which one is that?
Is it Higgs?
[Scott] I'm going to miss the mornings.
You could just walk straight out and low and behold facing your front door...
Other people would probably think I'm mad, but everything starts from somewhere.