RACINE – The big red barn is the place where the buffalo roam.

Tuesday, July 18, 2000

RACINE – The big red barn is the place where the buffalo roam.

It’s also the place where buffalo steaks are sold.

That’s how tourists find Tom and Shelly Kraetsch’s Burr Oak Buffalo Ranch. Ask directions and invariably it will include the reference: "Go a mile south of Racine along U.S. Highway 63 until you see the big red barn on the west side of the highway. That’s where the buffalo are," is the standard form of directions given.

For eight years, the couple and their family have raised buffalo. The herd now numbers 125 animals, including three breeding bulls.

Last weekend, the couple invited the public to get up close and personal with the shaggy beasts and held their annual Buffalo Fest celebration.

Two days of perfect summer weather attracted record crowds over the weekend, including many who were attending the 18th annual Root River Antique Engine and Power Show a couple miles further down U.S. Highway 63 at Deer Creek Campgrounds.

Booming buffalo business

How good is the buffalo business?

"It’s doing well," Tom Kraetsch said. "We’re selling our meat at a new farmers market at Pine Island and also are selling it to more concessions. The wholesale and retail markets are expanding."

So is the number of buffalo producers. There are no less than 20 families raising buffalo in the southeastern Minnesota area around the Kraetsch family’s Burr Oak ranch.

"Some are small and some are large.," Kraetsch said. "Some will only sell bull calves much like a cow-calf operation. Some will just feed out and some will do it all like we’re trying to do."

Kraetsch said he has no regrets about the investment he made in raising buffalo and that he plans to stay in the business.

"We need more education for the consuming public as to the nutritional value of buffalo meat and to emphasize how healthy it is to eat this meat," he said. "We’re still working on that and on expanding markets."

Since the Kraetsches started raising buffalo, three or four of their area neighbors also have started raising the shaggy beasts.

"People who do get into the business have to decide how deep they’re going to get," he said. "Are they going to be a cow-calf operation? Are they going to feed out? Are they going to do something else? Will it be a hobby farm? Will it be a second income? There are a lot of questions to be answered.

"Someone with experience at raising beef cattle has an edge over others, but it’s not completely like raising beef so there are important differences.

"Whenever people ask me for advice about raising buffalo, I tell them to get a second opinion and do their homework before going into the business," he said.

In the eight years of raising the animal, the Kraetsch family has refined their operation.

Two years ago, the Kraetsches started rotational grazing with six pastures of 15 acres each. For a week to 10 days, the buffalo graze in one of the pastures before moving on the next.

This summer’s hot and humid weather, combined with ample rainfall, have seen the idea of rotational grazing work to perfection. The grass grows rapidly in each of the six pastures as the buffalo are rotated from one to another.

It’s been so good that the Kraetsches run 100 cows instead of the 50 the pastures were designed to accommodate.

That is a part of any description of Burr Oak Ranch made by the owners to visitors and there are plenty of visitors.

Tourists stop, one car or van at a time or by the busloads on tours.

Day-care operators bring their children to the ranch and so do 4-H groups.

Groups interested in agriculture also visit the ranch, including a group of agriculture students from Denmark.

At the weekend’s Buffalo Fest, there were hayrack rides to see the animals up close, a children’s petting zoo of farm animals, the Trading Post was open to sell the meat and a group of buck skinners erected teepees and were living the lifestyle of the people who tamed the American west and who counted on the buffalo for much of their food and other prairie necessities.

Today, the buffalo at Burr Oak Ranch graze placidly within site of the big red barn unaware that motorists passing by look at the living, breathing icon of the American west and see an opportunity to keep American agriculture strong.