Michigan: Where buffalo roam

Farm near Pinckney, 3 others in Michigan have sizable herds
BY TINA LAM
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Halfway between Pinckney and Hell, more than 100 buffalo have a home on the range. Their owner, Kevin MacRitchie, has two goals in mind: humanely raising healthy meat and bringing back the mighty animals that once roamed the West.

MacRitchie is a big buffalo booster, offering tours of his 80-acre spread in the summer. He sells buffalo steaks at the hardware store he owns.

MacRitchie is a member of a unique niche group in Michigan, ranchers and farmers who raise American bison. Bison once roamed most of the U.S., including Michigan, but were all but wiped out by the end of the 1800s. But they've made a slow, steady comeback because of consumers' desire for healthful, lean meat and ranchers' love for the hairy, 2,000-pound beasts.

"These are majestic animals," MacRitchie said. "They're God's cattle."

Michigan has had bison farms since at least 1959. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture counted 3,600 bison on 150 Michigan farms.

Despite ups and downs on those farms in the last decade, "we're having a rebirth now," said Orv Kabat of the Michigan Bison Association, owner of a herd of 150 buffalo in the Upper Peninsula. "People eating healthier and wanting to know where their food comes from is having a dramatic effect on us."

Once the chute snapped shut, the enormous, 1-ton-plus bull leaped furiously, kicking, clanging metal bars and snorting heavily.

MacRitchie kept his cool. Half an hour earlier, his mom, Mickie MacRitchie, a retired nurse, had to leap up on the roof after another buffalo escaped the chute and broke through a fence.

"The element of danger makes it exciting to work with them," Kevin MacRitchie, 44, said of his herd of buffalo. "This is a lot of fun -- it's my dream."

In a cowboy hat and boots, you'd never guess that MacRitchie's day job is as a vice president for Cisco Systems, or that he grew up in Ann Arbor. "I love riding around the property on horseback," he said. "My wife tells me I should've been born in the 1800s."

Raising buffalo, also known as American bison, is almost a sacred calling for the owner of TMZ Farm near Pinckney, one of the state's largest bison farms. His aim is to raise organic, healthy meat, treat his animals humanely and help preserve this historic species.

Systematic slaughter

In the late 1800s, American bison were nearly exterminated from the Western plains by commercial hunters. Experts say their numbers dropped from 30 million to 70 million at their peak to a few hundred by about 1886. They were hunted for their hides, to protect rail lines and cattle herds, and to make way for settlers. They also were slaughtered to reduce food sources for American Indians in an attempt to force them onto reservations.

Now, buffalo are back. The National Bison Association said there were about 500,000 bison in North America in 2008, on ranches, farms and roaming wild in parks. Custer State Park in South Dakota has a herd of 1,500, and Yellowstone National Park has about 3,000. Farmers like MacRitchie hope they can give a small dose of help to reestablish those herds.

Michigan was once home to free-roaming American bison, whose range reached from Canada to Mexico, and east as far as the Appalachian Mountains.

Some Michigan farms, including Sprik Farms outside Grand Rapids and Circle K Ranch in Rudyard in the Upper Peninsula, have raised buffalo for two decades or more. There have been boom and bust cycles over that period, said farmer Dale Sprik.

Meat grows more popular

More buffalo is showing up on grocery store shelves and restaurant menus -- from burgers to flank steaks, said Jim Matheson, assistant director of the National Bison Association. "Demand is growing," he said. "We've had double-digit growth each year for the past five years."

CNN founder Ted Turner owns the largest buffalo herd in the country, with 45,000 animals, and owns 50 Ted's Montana Grill restaurants that serve buffalo.

Buffalo is a healthy meat. It contains far less fat than beef and even less than skinless chicken, pork or sockeye salmon, according to research at North Dakota State University. It's rich in protein and iron, low in cholesterol and naturally raised, with no growth hormones. "They grow so big, you don't need them," said Matheson. He and others said the meat tastes sweeter and richer than beef.

Michigan has fewer than a dozen farms that raise buffalo. MacRitchie's farm is one of the state's largest.

MacRitchie was raising cattle on 80 acres near Pinckney when he decided to buy six buffalo as an experiment in 2000. He was hooked, and has been growing his herd ever since, including rescuing some 150 buffalo over the years.

His prized bull, Lakota, is an icon on the farm. His profile graces the farm's logo and a sepia-toned photo of the bull is prominent on the office wall. MacRitchie hand-fed Lakota when the bull was three months old. Now 10 years old, Lakota leads the herd, and man and beast have a healthy respect for each other. "We have an understanding," MacRitchie said.

Western state of mind

MacRitchie always loved playing cowboy, riding horses, studying the history of the West and steeping himself in its culture. He dresses the part and his farmhouse looks like a rustic Montana ranch, full of western art, leather couches and animal heads.

Yet he grew up in citified Ann Arbor and is a computer geek. For the past 17 years, he has worked for computer giant Cisco Systems, and is a vice president for global defense, space and security for the firm. His e-mail address fits: cowboy@cisco.com.

He does all he can to promote buffalo ranching. He helps friends with their animals and works each September at Custer State Park. He buys buffalo from Custer's historic herd to improve the genetics of his own.

MacRitchie cherishes his herd, but the animals are a business. It costs $500 to $600 a year to feed each animal, mostly hay in winter, and fencing for the strong and independent-minded bison is expensive, he said.

He loves watching them silhouetted on the hill above his house. They graze on open fields and come into the farm's metal chutes for treatment only rarely. They get deworming medicine and vaccinations, but no antibiotics, food supplements or steroids. He sells the meat at a hardware store he owns in Pinckney and to restaurants and grocery stores.

"The slow food, buy local movement is really helping demand," he said. So is the move toward healthier meat.

But his love for the hairy creatures is evident. He hopes at least one of his children or grandchildren will follow his footsteps.

"I'm fortunate to live the life I do," he said. "It's a blessing just to ride my horse out with the buffalo."

Contact TINA LAM: 313-222-6421 or tlam@freepress.com