You’re exactly correct.
There’s one additional factor in beef vs. cattle: bison are mighty hard on the range. Bison like to create these “dust wallows” - where they tear up a 10’ diameter hold in the sod/grass/cover and they use this to roll around in the dust to cover themselves with dust to discourage ticks, mites, fleas, etc on their hides.
Cattle don’t tend to do this. Cattle rub themselves on everything that stands up off the ground (fenceposts, trees, parked cars, barbed wire, you name it), but bison are in a whole new league when it comes to “gotta scratch that itch” behavior.
I don't know that I have ever seen one under 30' and some up to several hundred feet in diameter. In farm ground they still hold water after a rain and having been farmed over for 50 plus years.