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Bring Your Best to Deadwood! Register your top bulls and showcase a group of your best females for the 2027 Black Hills Buffalo Thunder Show & Sale.
A Tradition of Competition, Performance & Progress
Since its early years, the Dakota Territory Buffalo Association has used friendly competition to bring producers together, showcase outstanding bison, and challenge the industry to keep moving forward.
DTBA's Show & Sale programs have become an important part of the association's history. Beginning with the Black Hills Buffalo Classic, these events created a place where producers could bring their best animals, compare genetics and production practices, market breeding stock, and learn from one another.
But DTBA competitions have never been based on appearance alone.
Over the years, DTBA developed innovative programs designed to evaluate the traits that matter to working bison operations. The Reality Based Carcass Contest evaluated carcass performance. Young Guns Performance Bull Contest placed developing bulls in a host-ranch environment to compare growth and performance. Girlz Gone Wild Performance Female Contest applied a similar concept to females, incorporating growth and reproductive performance. Later, Stack the Deck Bull Show & Sale brought a new performance-focused format to the annual Show & Sale.
These programs helped producers collect information, compare animals under common conditions, showcase their breeding programs, and offer quality genetics to buyers. Young Guns and Girlz Gone Wild in particular became recognized within DTBA as performance-tested breeding-stock programs, producing animals that went on to ranches across the country.
Today, that tradition continues with the Black Hills Buffalo Thunder Premier Bull Show & Sale and Girlz Gone Wild Bred Heifer Show & Sale (brought back for DTBA 30th), bringing quality production breeding stock, experienced producers, buyers, and industry professionals together during DTBA's annual Winter Conference.
Nearly three decades of DTBA Show & Sales tell a larger story—one of innovation, friendly competition, producer education, stronger genetics, and a shared commitment to building better bison for the future of the bison industry.
Honoring our history. Measuring performance. Showcasing producers. Building better bison for the future of our herds.