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ORAL HISTORY

Patrick Bierschwale

Katerra Exotics

Though Patrick Bierschwale grew up visiting his Grandfather’s ranch in the Texas Hill Country, the thought of raising bison, cattle, and animals for profit never factored into his early aspirations. “I wanted to be a pro-wrestler,” he laughs. Instead, he became an MMA fighter. When age, injuries, and family obligations pushed him to retire from the ring, he began working as a personal trainer. “I was always eating bison. People kept asking me, ‘Where do I get bison?’ So, I started just selling to my buddies at the gym.” Those early sales marked the beginning of what would become his company Katerra Exotics. Patrick credits the Urban Harvest Market with providing early income that enabled him to become a professional rancher. “It was put there to design urban agriculture and small ranches like me. So, it literally served its purpose to help fulfill my career.” More than bison, he now sells a host of grass-fed meats including elk, venison, goat and lamb to name a select few. While this career path continues to involve many challenges, he stresses that “Hard work is worth it, and anything that’s worth having you gotta work for ‘cause you see the fruits of your labor when you’re out working the land… You can still become a rancher, still become a cowboy, even in this day and age. It might take you a while, might have to start off small, might have to go a different route, but it can be done.”