No matter how often I drive south on U.S. 31, I’m still a little awed to see a herd of buffalo east of the highway. It feels like a scene out of a movie—the vision of those iconic animals grazing on a green hillside. In the spring, the calves totter around after their mothers. And in the winter,
the great beasts stand with a foot of snow on their backs. “It doesn’t melt,” Brad Oleson says, “Their hide is so thick.”
The herd of 400 buffalo is owned by the Oleson Food Stores and Brad oversees their management. “It takes a lot of time, money, and equipment,” he says, “but demand for their meat has doubled in the last couple years. People have learned that it’s low in cholesterol and high in iron.”
Buffalo have never really been domesticated, but they’re not dangerous. “They might approach you out of curiosity,” Brad says. A bigger danger is when they leap the fence. “They can clear six feet without a running start.”
“People sometimes warn me about coyotes,” Brad says, laughing, “but a grizzly bear will stand down to a buffalo. I love ‘em—their majesty and power.”