Released: April 16, 2008
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- “Buffalo gals, won’t you come out tonight?” said the old song. Today, instead of buffalo gals, we're going to learn about buffalo guys. In fact, the name of this business is literally The Buffalo Guys. These guys are producing buffalo meat for customers all across the nation, while being based in rural Kansas.
Ken Klemm is the co-founder of the business known as The Buffalo Guys. Ken was managing ranches in Colorado when he started working with buffalo. In 1999, he and his wife Laurie and family bought a place called the Homestead Ranch in Sherman County, Kansas and started raising buffalo of their own. But two things promptly happened: A drought hit, and the buffalo market broke. Ouch.
So Ken started seeking alternative ways to market his buffalo by reaching directly to customers. First it was in selling locally to farmers' markets. Then he tried selling buffalo meat to four- and five-star restaurants. Then he set up a Web site and started shipping buffalo products directly to people's homes.
Today the biggest part of the business is supplying buffalo products to grocery and health food stores. Ken's partner is Peter Thieriot, who had buffalo ranches in Wyoming, but has since bought neighboring ranches to Ken's place in Kansas. Together, they are The Buffalo Guys.
The Buffalo Guys offers USDA-inspected All Natural Buffalo Hot Dogs, Buffalo Sausages, tasty Buffalo Jerky, Buffalo Steaks, Buffalo Burgers and Buffalo Roasts. These are truly all natural products. They come from range-raised buffalo without antibiotics. The Buffalo Guys do not feed animal byproducts or use growth hormones or artificial preservatives.
The first product that The Buffalo Guys developed had a catchy name: Buffaloaf. It sounded to me like a lazy bison, but it was actually a flavored meat loaf. Although the product did not catch on and was discontinued, Ken says that they still get calls for it two years later. Meanwhile, demand for their main buffalo products continues strong.
Buffalo meat is lean, and as a result it scores favorably lower on cholesterol, fat and saturated fat when compared to beef, pork, skinless breast of chicken and even most fish. The health appeal of the product and the environmentally friendly production methods have contributed to the demand for buffalo meat.
In addition, The Buffalo Guys offer ribs, tenderloin, and many packages of cuts. Then there are all the additional items, such as dog bones, recipes, seasonings, and even official t-shirts, gloves and aprons.
Today, The Buffalo Guys are shipping their products coast to coast, mostly to health food stores and upscale mom-and-pop natural food stores. In Ken's office is a map of the U.S. with pins showing the locations of stores to which they deliver across the country. There are some 1,200 pins all across the country, with an additional 20 or 30 being added each month. Wow.
About half the buffalo is produced on Ken and Peter's ranches, and the other half is produced by growers who raise them to The Buffalo Guys’ specifications.
Ken says, “The business really started in my basement out at the ranch, but when I needed to hire somebody to help me, I figured that they didn't want to go out to my basement.” That's when Ken moved the office to Goodland.
Ken also offers buffalo hunts on his ranch in rural Sherman County where a person can participate in an escorted hunt for trophy bulls, prime cows, or more. The ranch is 18 miles north of the town of Goodland, population 4,775 people. Now, that's rural.
Ken and Peter are branching out to offer breeding stock and grass-fed buffalo meat to customers as well. More information can be found at http://www.thebuffaloguys.com, http://www.thehomesteadranch.com, and http://www.beavercreekbuffalo.com.
“Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight?” went the old refrain. But these aren't buffalo gals, these are The Buffalo Guys. We commend Ken and Laurie Klemm, Peter Thieriot, and all those involved with The Buffalo Guys for making a difference through entrepreneurship and creative thinking. Through their hard work, these buffalo guys are coming out to customers all across the nation.
The mission of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development is to enhance rural development by helping rural people help themselves. The Kansas Profile radio series and columns are produced with assistance from the K-State Research and Extension Department of Communications News Unit. Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at http://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/huckboyd/.
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http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/KSProfile.htm
Contacts: Ron Wilson, (785) 532-7690, rwilson@ksu.edu
Sara Wege, (785) 532-6390 saraw@ksu.edu
