The Buffalo Guys

Ken and Peter met during the summer of 1994. Ken was managing one of the largest buffalo ranches in the west (over 3,500 animals) and Peter was just getting into the buffalo business (with 20 heifer calves). They got along pretty well; Peter learned a lot from Ken and Ken learned a little from Peter.

By the year 2000, they had progressed in their individual endeavors. Ken had bought his own ranch in Kansas (Homestead Ranch) and Peter's herd had grown to 600 buffalo cows (Elk Mountain Ranch). That year they decided to form Great Plains Bison, LLC, DBA Nature’s Prairie, specifically to market the meat they produced. (They originally called the company Great Plains Bison because, technically, what most of us call buffalo are really bison. Buffalo are those similar creatures in Africa - Cape Buffalo - and in southeast Asia - the water buffalo. The specie, bison, is a unique animal and the largest mammal in North America .) Then in early 2003 they changed their name to The Buffalo Guys, LLC, since that is what everyone was calling them. Nothing changed but the name and folks seemed to like it.

Since the demand for buffalo steaks was already good, they decided to concentrate on products made from other portions of the animal. Thus, the first products they developed were ones derived from ground buffalo, and this was the genesis of Buffaloaf, which is a buffalo meatloaf.

In 2002, the initial product line was developed for Buffaloaf™, namely, a traditional meatloaf of 11 ounces, fully cooked, and reheatable in 5 minutes. Four flavors were developed: Old Fashioned, Mexican, Italian and a Gourmet type seasoned with green peppercorns and a cherry/orange glaze. Marketing of the Buffaloaf items will begin in late 2003. Further variations are under study and development.

In the summer of 2002 direct sales of their buffalo meat through the Internet began. Growth continues to be tremendous as people discover how great buffalo tastes and that all buffalo steaks are not created equal. A very cost-effective system of shipping product anywhere in the US has made their fine products available anywhere and in great demand.

Then in the spring of 2003 a tasty and very healthy hot dog was developed. This All Natural Hot Dog contains no MSG, Nitrites or other chemicals and it tastes great! Marketing of this exciting new product began in June of 2003.

Also in the spring of 2003 the jerky recipes they had developed earlier were revised and improved. The new jerky was free of BEEF, MSG OR NITRITES. It meets the USDA standards for an All Natural Jerky. Marketing of this new line began in July of 2003.

In the spring of 2005 two new retail ready products will roll out; Ground Buffalo in a one pound frozen brick and Buffalo Burgers in a one pound pack containing four quarter pound patties. Both of these items have been much requested by our customers and will be made from our high quality meat. Both will be offered in attractive and functional retail ready packaging.

Ken and Peter are quite sensitive about how their animals and lands are treated, so they go to great ends to assure that they are careful stewards of both. They both believe that the bison is a regal animal which deserves respect for its independent nature and the part it played in native cultures of the Great Plains and our nation's early history. Thus, it is important to them that the bison remain as uninfluenced by man's many technological interventions as possible.

Consequently, none of their animals receive growth hormones; artificial insemination is not practiced; the estrus period of the cows is never manipulated; no animal by-products are fed to their animals and sub-therapeutic medicines are never used. On the other hand, the animals breed on their own schedule; they have their calves at their own speed in open pastures, and they grow as their own genes dictate. We depend on their wild-animal-immune-systems to protect them from most illnesses.

When demand exceeds the meat production ability of Ken's and Peter's herds, they buy animals from other growers. These other growers are carefully reviewed to assure that the same production methods are followed as closely as possible to their own. As demand for their fine products continues to grow, other select growers will be invited to join The Buffalo Guys, LLC. In this fashion, positive change will be wrought, both on the land and in peoples’ lives.

It is the mission of The Buffalo Guys, LLC, to provide to the public quality and healthful food products while preserving the health and integrity of the reemerging North American buffalo herds and the environment that sustains us all. We will actively promote and practice healthful land and animal management practices that will aid the environment, the buffalo herds and our consumers to maintain a healthy and sustainable balance.

We at The Buffalo Guys believe that actions have consequences. We believe that through thoughtful examination of the problems endemic to the American diet, to American agriculture and to the American environment we can act in such a manner as to reduce or eliminate these problems. Our production and business practices are designed to limit the negative and maximize the positive consequences to the environment, the buffalo population and to our consumers' health.

We have carefully devised our growing specifications to preserve the buffalo's native characteristics. Most are only handled once a year and then for a very brief time. Our management philosophy stresses the continuation of the buffalos' age-old habit of roaming large spaces in extended family units.

We feel the lands we use to raise buffalo are not ours to keep; we are only the current tenant. We subscribe to Teddy Roosevelt's thoughts on this when he said, "The Nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased," rather than diminished. We are all educated in Alan Savory's principles of Holistic Resource Management that help us manage the natural world around us. Some tools we use include rotational grazing, stock water developments, wildlife friendly fences and monitoring of native plants and animals to assure their sustainability. We prohibit the use of non-organic chemical means to solve a problem that can be solved, or prevented, through good management or organic means. We do not promote the use of feedlots.

We believe that what we produce for others to eat should be equal in quality to what we, ourselves, choose to eat at home.

We strive to bring to market products that meet the highest standards of health and wholesomeness. Buffalo meat coming from the production models that we have devised is the best and most healthy meat one can buy. In all we do, we try to maintain the original integrity of the meat.

We support the growth of "Organic and Sustainable" agricultural practices and feel that the American Buffalo fits this well.

Animals are, and have been, an integral part of the health and balance of this earth and all its' many ecosystems. This is inescapable. The earth will not function sustainably without the benefits that animals provide. A very small portion of the earth's surface is covered with farmable ground. A much larger portion is covered with grasslands with thinner soils, in not so temperate of areas. Just as the buffalo need grass to survive and be healthy, so the grasslands need the buffalo for their health and survival. Grasslands need grazing coupled with rest to invigorate growth and keep invasive weeds in check. This balance between the grasses and the native grazers has been in place for millennia and can be sustained indefinitely.

A grassland produces almost nothing vegetable that a human can get sustenance from. These grasses can be efficiently converted to meat, which humans can then use. We agree that grain-feeding cattle or bison is unnatural. However, a wild ruminant will seek out the grain in the heads of certain plants when it is in season but will never have the opportunity, or desire, to have a diet based solely on grain. Also, we have found that some grain feeding is necessary to produce a consistent, quality, year-round product.

After much study and thought we have devised a system that has overcome these apparent contradicitions. We raise buffalo on their native ranges in a holistic manner. They spend the bulk of their lives in the herds that they love and when it comes time to prepare them for market we gather the animals destined for slaughter and place them in our feeding pastures. These are small pastures (over 1,000,000 sq ft each), which are covered with living, growing, sodded grasses. These pastures have a gate on one end where the animals have access to self-feeders of hay and grain. In this way we never create the filth or require the animals to live in the stress and filth of a feedlot. Each pasture is rested enough so that the grasses are healthy and continue to keep the soil in place and filter the rainfall. Perhaps the biggest environmental benefit is that by keeping the soil microorganisms alive and healthy under these pastures they are able to decompose the manure and bring it back into the system.

The hay we feed is naturally raised. It is cost prohibitive to purchase or raise certified organic hay. Hay production requires lots of acres and one buffalo can easily eat a ton or more in a winter. Organic certification is costly and so only works on acreages which produce high value crops. Hay production does not fit this. The grains we feed are not certified organic. We have found that there are not sufficient supplies from nearby organic farms to supply us. We would use only certified organic feeds if it were possible but to date, it is not.

The reason we have chosen to raise buffalo is because of their natural abilities to forage, their independence from disease and sickness (and so from antibiotics), and their ability to balance their own diet when in the feeding pastures. Cattle, hogs, sheep and chickens are not suited as well to the natural world around them and so they are not as suited to a minimalistic system. Buffalo meat is also lower in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol than all of the above mentioned animals. Amazingly it is also lower in these items than even skinless, white chicken meat! Buffalo fit perfectly both the land and the diet of this age and that is why we do what we do!

We believe that our employees and member ranchers should be fairly compensated for their efforts and in so doing be empowered to enjoy a full and fruitful life.

We, as an employer and a purchaser of buffalo from other ranchers, adhere to the principle that every human should have the opportunity to make their life better by providing a useful product or service to their fellow man.

Bon Appetit Magazine
August, 2004

Their first listing in their "Taste Test - Top Dogs" section reads: "The Fit Frank... "The Buffalo Guys offer a peppery lower-calorie alternative to classic beef and pork dogs ($22 for four packages; 888.330.8686; thebuffaloguys.com)." Gina Provenzano

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Food & Wine Magazine
January, 2004

"Based in Wyoming and Kansas, the Buffalo Guys have started selling their juicy hot dogs ($22 for 3 lb.) and succulent short ribs ($20 for 4 lb.) and are about to introduce a Buffaloaf (888-330-8686 or www.thebuffaloguys.com)." Beth Collins

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Elk Mountain, rising above the high plains between Rawlins and Laramie, has always been a significant landmark amidst the vast expanse of sagebrush along Interstate 80 in southern Wyoming. Now, due to a conservation easement donated to The Nature Conservancy by the primary landowner on the mountain, this landmark will be conserved in perpetuity.

Because of its vast size and its ecological importance, The Nature Conservancy has considered Elk Mountain a high conservation priority since the organization founded its Wyoming Chapter in 1989. In 1993, what is known now as the Elk Mountain Ranch Company came up for sale. The ranch, over 20,000 deeded acres in size, is the key parcel on Elk Mountain. At that time, the Conservancy expressed its intent to purchase the land for conservation, but instead, conservationist Peter Thieriot bought it. Since early 1998, the Wyoming Chapter and Thieriot have been working together toward completing a conservation easement on the property. On December 10, 1998, that goal was achieved.

"This is one of the greatest conservation gifts ever given in the state of Wyoming," said Dave Neary, the Associate State Director of the Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. "Protecting the ranch's land effectively conserves a landscape-scale area with exceptional wildlife habitat for a large number of species."

A conservation easement is a legal agreement that a landowner makes to restrict the type and/or amount of development that may occur on his or her property. Conservation easements are flexible documents that maintain important wildlife habitats while allowing continued productive economic use of ranchlands. The owner grants the right to uphold the terms of the agreement to a qualified organization such as The Nature Conservancy.

The terms of the Elk Mountain easement provide that the ecological features of the property are to be conserved in perpetuity. The easement also prohibits subdivision, most commercial uses, or any action that will degrade the condition of the soil, water, vegetation, or wildlife habitat. The land, which will continue to be used for bison ranching, outfitting, and carefully managed timber harvesting by horse-loggers, will remain the property of Mr. Thieriot, and management will remain his responsibility.

"My primary goal in donating a conservation easement on this property is to preserve this piece of Wyoming," explained Thieriot, "but I believe it is useful for other ranchers to understand that conservation and raising livestock are not mutually exclusive, but that, in fact, they are perfectly compatible."

Elk Mountain ranges in elevation from 7,200 feet to 11,200 feet, and is quite biologically diverse. The lower-elevation sagebrush-grasslands support colonies of white-tailed prairie dogs, while the low-lying wetlands host numerous shorebirds and waterfowl, including white pelicans. Where the land rises to fir, pine, and spruce forests, one also finds peregrine and prairie falcons, bald eagles, and golden eagles. The land includes more than 20 miles of riparian areas along the numerous creeks on the property. This, combined with the forest shelter and the lush wetland meadows, makes the area crucial winter range for elk and important summer habitat for deer and antelope.

"The ranch supports a wide range of habitats for several native animals and represents a property of significant conservation value," said Dr. Gary Beauvais, the zoologist from the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database (WYNDD) based at the University of Wyoming, who completed an inventory of the site during the summer of 1998.

Besides the undeniable biological value, the property holds historical importance as well. Fort Halleck is a national historic site and is located on the ranch. The fort was built in the mid-1800s along the Fort Laramie/Fort Halleck Trail as shelter for the soldiers assigned to cutting firewood to fuel the engines on the nearby railroad. The fort's blacksmith shop still stands. Many of these soldiers carved their names on the mountain's limestone cliffs, leaving an invaluable historical record of that time period. There are also remnant piles of cut firewood scattered about the property. "Coal was discovered in Hanna during the time that the men were working from the fort, resulting in the re-routing of the railroad and the elimination of the demand for wood," explained Thieriot.

"This land is significant: in size, in biological diversity, and in visibility," said Thieriot. "I chose to donate this easement to protect it from subdivision, which seems to be the immediate threat to ranches in the West. I am working with The Nature Conservancy because of their record. They are focused on conserving the land, and all the plant and animal species on it. I'm confident that the Conservancy will continue to assure the high standards of our stewardship after my children and I are gone."

According to the contract, The Nature Conservancy will monitor the easement on an annual basis in order to ensure that the terms of the easement are upheld.

ELK MOUNTAIN - A conservation easement on 30,000 acres of Elk Mountain has been given to the Nature Conservancy by the mountain's primary landowner, conserving the mountain "in perpetuity," the Conservancy announced Friday.

Peter Thieriot, owner of the Elk Mountain Ranch, has completed the easement on private, state, and federal parcels on the ranch some 50 miles east of Rawlins. He gave it to the Conservancy December 10.

"This is one of the greatest conservation gifts ever given in the state of Wyoming," Dave Neary, associate state director of the Conservancy's Wyoming chapter, said. "Protecting the ranch's land effectively conserves a landscape-scale area with exceptional wildlife habitat for a large number of species."