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Buffalo roam Trenton ranch in style
TRENTON, Mo. (AP)--Jim Hayes provided more than a home for his buffalo to roam. He gave them a Club Med for their homestead. On the 85-acre J Bar H Ranch on U.S. Highway 50, Hayes pampers about 50 buffalo. He built them a scenic watering hole with a fountain. They have hills to play on and a large roof for shade. Hayes even feeds his favorite, Paco, Twinkies, for Pete's sake. And in the next year, these buffalo will be moved a few hundred yards away to a 60-acre, all-you-can-eat alfalfa pasture. Even the ranch logo shows grinning buffalo "My buffalo are happy buffalo," said Hayes, 64. Life is good on the J Bar H. In fact, buffalo ranches around the country are doing pretty well. Demand for buffalo meat has been heating up over the last two years, the National Bison Association says. Meat sales were up 21 percent last year when 42,687 animals were harvested, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And in the first five months of this year, nearly 20,000 buffalo have been processed. Hayes, who made a more-than-comfortable living in real estate investments, got interested in buffalo when his kids bought him two calves three years ago. "I've always loved buffalo because they resemble the Southwest," he said in his dining room, where he drinks his morning coffee while watching his herd. "They're so free." Not economically speaking, that is. Hayes spends up to $1,800 a month on feed alone. But he doesn't spare any expense. "Money is no object for his animals," said Margaret Gall, who mentors Hayes and raises buffalo of her own in Greenville. "He spoils them." Buffalo deserve a little coddling, Hayes figures. After all, this symbol of the frontier, once a mainstay of the Wild West, was near extinction. An estimated 70 million buffalo roamed North America before 1600. But widespread, unregulated killing, mostly to starve American Indians into submission, dwindled the number to about 1,500 in the 1800s. Today, numbers are rebounding. Buffalo ranching started catching on in the 1970s, said Jim Matheson, assistant director of the National Bison Association. It became even more popular in the 1990s, after billionaire Ted Turner started focusing on the livestock and opened a chain of restaurants, Ted's Montana Grill, featuring the meat. The National Bison Association now puts the number of buffalo on private ranches in the United States around 270,000. The largest numbers are in the Dakotas, which have more than 70,000 between the two states. Montana, Nebraska and Oklahoma also have large herds. As of 2002, the last time the FDA conducted a buffalo census, Missouri had the 12th most buffalo with 5,451. Illinois had 1,009, ranking it 27th. Buffalo, which tastes a little sweeter than beef, is lower in fat, calories and cholesterol than its cattle counterpart. The meat, which tends to sell for about $5 a pound for ground buffalo, is higher in protein and iron than other meats, Matheson said. Growth hormones are prohibited. Hayes notes that the herds are easier to care for. "They're plains animals," he said. "They pretty much take care of themselves. They've been doing this for thousands of years." Still, Hayes offers a little extra help. If a calf is sick, he's been known to spend the night in the stall with it. He regularly turns down offers to buy his animals because he's too attached to them. Then he called out to Paco, a 6-month-old calf who grunted and ran toward Hayes the second he called out his name. Hayes stuffed a Twinkie in the buffalo's mouth and proceeded to let Paco suck on his fingers for several minutes. Paco is getting big, though, and Hayes didn't have much control during the feeding. "Won't be much longer, he and I are going to have to have a different relationship," Hayes said. "They're not a cuddly animal." His affection has gotten Hayes in trouble. One of his buffalo gored him in the leg a few months ago. Struggling to describe the wound, Hayes, not bashful one bit in a room with three women, stood up, unbuckled his belt, and dropped his pants. "Went right through to the bone," he said, pointing at a mid-thigh scar to the amusement of those in the room. Next year, reluctantly, he'll probably find a processor and start selling meat to restaurants. But, he acknowledges, he doubts he'll ever make a nickel. "I didn't get in this for the money," Hayes said. "I love these buffalo. These buffalo are family. "That reminds me, I'm going to have to get more Twinkies." Date: 10/11/07
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