Buffalo Dreams

Behold, this dreamer cometh. Genesis 37:19

Driving his golf cart into a herd of buffalo, Gary Lenz popped the top on a can of Miller’s Lite, and spoke of dreams.
“When I was little kid, my father farmed near here. We drove by this place one day and I told him that this was my dream farm. He laughed at me, ‘That land isn’t any good for anything, it’s too hilly to clear or to plant,” he told me.
Lenz decided to try to buy the land soon after his father died.
“I wanted it for the lay of the land. I love hills and valleys and springs. I hate flat land. I don’t want to grow crops; I buy crops and hay. I wanted pastures. So I found the owner in Costa Rica, and he said ‘OK,’ just like that. So suddenly, I owned my dream property, but it took me awhile to figure out what to do with it,” Lenz said, recalling another dream.
“To me, buffalo and elk represent the ultimate American romance. This place was all rose bushes then, so I had to clear them out to make pastures and I had to fence them. At first, I bought Texas longhorn and elk. I bought my first buffalo because I thought they’d be neat to have,” he said, adding that when he and future business partner Dan Palmer heard that 100 animals separated “a hobby” from “a business,” they bought enough to be businessmen.
That’s how the Iowa Bison Company was born. Lenz ranges buffalo on several ranches, including one that turns heads along US Highway 52. His Buffalo Ridge ranch rolls over steep hills, between St. Donatus and Dubuque. Just down the bluff from Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey, it is a surreal dream. On a summer weekend, between 100-150 cars will cruise by with cameras and “I told you so’s” protruding from windows.
Lenz indulges the curiosity of others, inviting school groups to visit and giving each student a T shirt and buffalo lunch. Despite the majesty of bathing elk and stampeding bison, the main attraction is Bogie, Lenz’s five year old, full ton “baby.”
A buffalo mother will disown one calf when she has twins. Dan Palmer, who ranches 582 idyllic acres near Maquoketa, told us that he once bought a goat nanny for such a buffalo.
“That goat led him around and they became inseparable friends. The goat would curl up and sleep on top of him until he got too big. One time a school group saw that curled up goat and asked what it was, so I told them it was my white buffalo. I wish,” Palmer mused, considering that a rare white buffalo can fetch a million dollars at auction.
Bogie was a similar orphan, having been bottle fed to maturity by Lenz and his family. He’s also a Kobe-style buffalo, with a taste for an occasional beer. He can hear a pop top pop from half a mile away and runs to a gate where he can lap it up with his tongue. Now a couple years past slaughtering age, he’s more family than livestock. He used to have the run of the entire ranch until he ate the flowers.
“He’s a big baby, but he’s a mighty strong baby, so don’t mess with him,” Gary reminded us, adding that Bogie’s also a gourmet.
“One school group wanted to feed Bogie apples. Now Bogie loves apples, but he’s strictly organic, from trees in the woods. The kids had supermarket apples, so Bogie spit them out in disgust,” he laughed.
Maneuvering his golf cart between pastures, Lenz explained other gourmet instincts of buffalo. “They only go for short sweet grass, which is where the high protein is. So we have to cut it short and put up a lot of hay after it rains. They eat grain and hay all winter so they can’t wait for the Spring pastures,” he said.
The ranch is divided into 10 acre pastures in which a herd grazes for 2-3 weeks, before it’s rotated. Buffalo are segregated by age, six months apart. Each time Lenz passed between pastures, he reminded us that gates have dire consequences if left open.
“Buffalo won’t go where you want them to go unless they want to go there too. Yet, I have never had a buffalo mess with me, unless someone left a gate open. Once a buffalo leaves the herd, he’s scared to death. You can’t get him back without shooting him. and they can jump like deer. One cleared two fences while we were chasing him. We had to chase him for two hours after someone left a gate open,” he recalled, throwing buckets of culled oats and grouts over the field.
A herd sauntered over and a pecking order was established. Young orange colored calves were last, then older brown calves, the meeker moms, the ornerier cows, and the bulls. Gary keeps ten cows to each bull and though the meat industry recommends the Woods Bison, he is partial to the more romantic looking Plains Bison.
As the herd surrounded us, Roger Miller’s famous admonition seemed wrong. You could roller skate in a buffalo herd.
“You’re safe as long as you don’t cut between a calf and her mother, or between a bull and his cow. They aren’t mean at all if you keep them fed, but you can never domesticate them. They are majestic and wild and yet, amazingly, they put up with you.
“This is why I do this. Look, we’re surrounded by a breed that was 60 million strong (in the 19th century) and a few years ago it had been reduced to less than 1000. This is the biggest rush of all. To think they will be my friends as long as I take care of them,” he said while counting cows.
“If I don’t see a cow for two or three days, I know I’m about to have a baby. That is the only time they ever leave the herd. Cows are incredible, in a drought they will hold a calf that is ready to be born, until there is enough water or grass. I leave them to their own designs, and I get 90% calving rates that way. I tried the industry controlled way once and that got reduced to 70%,” he laughed.
The count revealed a surprise. There were 32 heifers where there should have been 20; someone had left a gate open again, but with minimal consequences. “I hate fences, but they are necessary. I want this to be as natural as possible. We never castrate a bull. That wouldn’t be right. They do that in the industry, but I feel it’s wrong. I want the buffalo to be proud because they are proud creatures. I never cut their horns either, most guys do, so they won’t scar each other, but that isn’t natural. I got into this for the romance, not the bottom line,” he concluded.
When Lenz and Palmer took up buffalo in the 1990’s, it was an expensive hobby. Then the fickle winds of nutritional science created a market for buffalo meat, which is nutrient dense, low in carbohydrates and bad cholesterol, and high in antioxidants, iron and essential fatty acids. That market grew so fast that Iowa Bison can no longer supply their demand and need to buy buffalo from other ranchers.
“It never occurred to me back then that people would ever want to eat bison. Now, there’s money in the product. We sell every part of the buffalo, the hide, the head, intestines, the testicles. Zip’s Tap in Andrew has a Buffalo Testicle Feast each year. We make leather jackets from the summer hides and winter hides go the taxidermists. I fertilize my corn with buffalo manure and that corn grows twice as tall as the corn that gets chemical fertilizers.
“When I first bought buffalo, people looked at me as if I was dumb as a rock. After a few years, the same people were asking what it takes to raise them,” he said, breathing in the pleasures of a last laugh.

Eating Bison Beyond nutritional motivations, bison sales have soared because of its distinctive flavor, if cooked correctly. Jerky and sausage products, of which Iowa Bison has several, are no-brainers for cooks. Raw meat is trickier. The low fat means it should be eaten rare or medium rare. Slow, low temperature cooking is a general rule that yields spectacular results.
At Iowa Buffalo Company in Mediapolis, Craig Murguia says that buffalo meat loaf, ribeye and burgers turned his restaurant into a dinner destination for drivers within a 70 mile radius. He sells all Iowa Bison products in his grocery store too.
Kim Wolff, owner/chef of Dubuque’s Pepper Sprout restaurant, sells 70 pounds worth of 6 ounce buffalo filets in a good week. In a charming 19th century building, Pepper Sprout is an heirloom showcase for this indigenous Iowa meat. Wolff changes her preparation seasonally, using fresh ingredients from a family of local suppliers. She gets wild mushrooms from a Bellevue ‘shroomer, domestic shiitakes and oyster mushrooms from a Dubuque grower. A sister-in-law grows her squash, while an aunt brings her edible flowers, fresh herbs and mixed greens. Onions and snow peas come from her octogenarian grandfather. She also uses 3 organic growers from the Dubuque Farmers Market.
Iowa Bison products are also sold retail at Hy-Vee stores and Haun’s in Dubuque. Restaurants serving Iowa Bison include Kalmes’ in St. Donatus; the Crow Valley Golf Club, Thunder Bay Grills and The Filling Station in Davenport; Circle C in Lamotte; plus Kalmes’ Breaktime and The Yard Arm in Dubuque.

Other Iowa Buffalo Ranches
Iowa Bison Association reports 43 members in 33 counties that market buffalo meat. Two of them present unique experiences.

~Dreesman’s offers trail rides and hunting experiences besides their line of meat. It is sold at The Metro Market in Des Moines, Julie’s in Grinnell, Crossroads in Toledo, Farmer Nick's at I-80 & Hwy 21, Silver Dollar in Chelsea, New Pioneer Coop in Coralville; and directly from the ranch at 3575 L Ave, Tama, IA 52339, 641-484-6725 dreesman@iowatelecom.net.

~Hawkeye Buffalo Ranch, on a 150 year old family spread in northeast Iowa, offers hunting experiences in addition to their products. Contact: Dan McFarland 3034 Pembroke Ave., Fredericksburg, Iowa 50630 563-237-5318

Testimonials
~At their first White House black tie dinner, President Bush & Mrs. Bush served buffalo to Mexican President Vincente Fox & Mrs. Fox.
~Bison hot dogs are served at the Atlanta Braves’ & Milwaukee Brewers’ baseball parks.
~When professional golfer, Chi Chi Rodriguez came to Des Moines on the senior tour he brought buffalo meat with him as part of his post heart attack diet.
~The USS John F. Kennedy serves 500 to 600 pounds of buffalo meat a day.
~Reader’s Digest cited bison meat as one of the "Top 5 Foods Women Need Most," citing its high iron and low fat numbers.
~Muscle & Fitness magazine touted bison meat for “as much B6 and iron as beef, but has a richer flavor and half the fat!"
~Weight Watchers Magazine added bison meat to their "winning point program."
~Farm Bureau’s Farm News wrote "Buffalo meat contains shorter fibers making the meat more tender. Protein analysis of the buffalo meat shows that it has an excellent distribution of amino acids, giving it more complete protein that other red meats."

Buffalo or Bison?
The North American buffalo is not a true buffalo. Its closest relative is the European bison or wisent and the Canadian woods bison, not the Cape buffalo or water buffalo of Africa and Asia. The scientific name for the American buffalo is bison. It belongs to the bovidae family of mammals, as do domestic cattle. American history has used the word buffalo so long that it has romantic connotations that help marketing, although "bison" is the correct name. The words are interchangeable, whether speaking of the animal or the meat it provides.

This story originally appeared in The Iowan