Post by Okwes on Feb 16, 2006 10:17:20 GMT -5
Area ranchers tap growing interest
Buffalo-meat sales for two groups increasing; one opens restaurant
MICHAEL ROSE
Statesman Journal
February 12, 2006
Locally raised buffalo is what's for dinner in the Mid-Willamette
Valley.
A few ranchers in Marion and Polk counties are raising the massive
animals and cashing in on consumers' growing interest in tasty, low-fat
meat.
Wakinyan, a Lakota Sioux who goes by one name, and his family recently
opened the Buffalo Grill at Liberty Plaza in downtown Salem. Buffalo
meat served at the restaurant comes from the family's Polk County ranch.
Many customers first try the restaurant's buffalo-meat entrees, covering
the gamut from buffalo burgers to buffalo pot pie for health reasons,
Wakinyan said.
But it's the meat's flavor that builds repeat business.
"We've had a tremendous response from the community," he said.
Restaurant sales are well ahead of expectations, he said.
Wakinyan's family has been buffalo ranching for nearly three decades.
Their Naturally Native Buffalo ranch has 65 adult bison on 200 acres
near Dallas.
Its primary market has been providing meat to Native American customers,
he said, many of whom consider buffalo a mainstay food. The family
operates three restaurants on Indian reservations and sells buffalo meat
to casinos across the country.
Many entrepreneurs jumped into the bison ranching business thinking they
could make big money by selling breeding stock and flooded the market.
Naturally Native avoided that trap by focusing primarily on meat.
"You have to create a meat product; otherwise it becomes an expensive
hobby," Wakinyan said.
In Marion County, the Metz family is running a smaller-scale buffalo
ranch. Their Cascade Buffalo Ranch sells meat direct to consumers. It
has been a regular vendor at the Salem Farmers Market.
Eldon Metz and his wife, Alice, decided they needed to find a niche
market to turn a profit from their 20 acres of rural property. About
three years ago, they bought a few buffalo and have since expanded the
herd to 19 animals.
"We got in right when a lot of people were getting out," Eldon Metz
said.
Buffalo raised by Cascade Buffalo Ranch are processed on the ranch by a
mobile slaughter service and then sliced into cuts of meat by a butcher
in Oregon City.
Federal regulations mandate that beef sold to the public must be
processed at a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected facility but
those USDA rules don't apply to buffalo.
Buffalo is a premium priced product. Cascade Buffalo sells ground meat
for $4 per pound; porterhouse and tenderloin cuts sell for $18 per
pound. Because the meat is leaner and denser than beef, regular customer
don't seem to mind the cost, Metz said.
Sales of buffalo liver have been slow, but there is a customer waiting
list for buffalo tongue, Metz said.
mrose@StatesmanJournal. com or (503) 399-6657
Buffalo-meat sales for two groups increasing; one opens restaurant
MICHAEL ROSE
Statesman Journal
February 12, 2006
Locally raised buffalo is what's for dinner in the Mid-Willamette
Valley.
A few ranchers in Marion and Polk counties are raising the massive
animals and cashing in on consumers' growing interest in tasty, low-fat
meat.
Wakinyan, a Lakota Sioux who goes by one name, and his family recently
opened the Buffalo Grill at Liberty Plaza in downtown Salem. Buffalo
meat served at the restaurant comes from the family's Polk County ranch.
Many customers first try the restaurant's buffalo-meat entrees, covering
the gamut from buffalo burgers to buffalo pot pie for health reasons,
Wakinyan said.
But it's the meat's flavor that builds repeat business.
"We've had a tremendous response from the community," he said.
Restaurant sales are well ahead of expectations, he said.
Wakinyan's family has been buffalo ranching for nearly three decades.
Their Naturally Native Buffalo ranch has 65 adult bison on 200 acres
near Dallas.
Its primary market has been providing meat to Native American customers,
he said, many of whom consider buffalo a mainstay food. The family
operates three restaurants on Indian reservations and sells buffalo meat
to casinos across the country.
Many entrepreneurs jumped into the bison ranching business thinking they
could make big money by selling breeding stock and flooded the market.
Naturally Native avoided that trap by focusing primarily on meat.
"You have to create a meat product; otherwise it becomes an expensive
hobby," Wakinyan said.
In Marion County, the Metz family is running a smaller-scale buffalo
ranch. Their Cascade Buffalo Ranch sells meat direct to consumers. It
has been a regular vendor at the Salem Farmers Market.
Eldon Metz and his wife, Alice, decided they needed to find a niche
market to turn a profit from their 20 acres of rural property. About
three years ago, they bought a few buffalo and have since expanded the
herd to 19 animals.
"We got in right when a lot of people were getting out," Eldon Metz
said.
Buffalo raised by Cascade Buffalo Ranch are processed on the ranch by a
mobile slaughter service and then sliced into cuts of meat by a butcher
in Oregon City.
Federal regulations mandate that beef sold to the public must be
processed at a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected facility but
those USDA rules don't apply to buffalo.
Buffalo is a premium priced product. Cascade Buffalo sells ground meat
for $4 per pound; porterhouse and tenderloin cuts sell for $18 per
pound. Because the meat is leaner and denser than beef, regular customer
don't seem to mind the cost, Metz said.
Sales of buffalo liver have been slow, but there is a customer waiting
list for buffalo tongue, Metz said.
mrose@StatesmanJournal. com or (503) 399-6657