Douglas County resident Steve Martin has seen his investment portfolio drop more than most who have their dollars parked on Wall Street.

But his money isn’t on Wall Street. It’s invested in about 75 buffaloes that roam his 190-acre pasture outside of Appanoose near the Douglas-Franklin county line.

And Martin, president of the Kansas Buffalo Assn., said the buffalo market was going through its worst downturn in the 10 years that he has been involved in the business.

About three years ago, an 800- to 1,200-pound buffalo sold for $3,000 to $3,500 at auction. Today, the same buffalo may fetch $400.

“We’ve been caught up in the same problems the beef industry has had,” Martin said. “The drought has hurt us pretty bad.”

Martin said the drought forced many buffalo producers, especially those in the western United States, to sell much of their herd because they didn’t have the grass or water to support the animals.

That sell-off flooded the market with buffalo and resulted in the declining prices. But Martin isn’t about to throw in the towel.

“It’s a lot like the stock market right now,” Martin said. “A lot of people are saying buy now because it has hit the bottom. I think that’s the way it is with buffalo, too.”

Martin, who makes his full-time living as a house painter, expects prices to rebound soon to between $600 and $700 for a mature buffalo. But he’s not sure the prices will ever get back to the $3,000 range. Those prices may be like the dot-com stocks in the 1990s on Wall Street  a once-in-a-lifetime event.

As president of the approximately 100-member Kansas Buffalo Assn., Martin encourages traditional ranchers and other rural landowners to take a look at entering the industry.

“With these prices, it’s certainly all there for the taking,” Martin said.

He said counties like Douglas also might prove to be successful areas for the buffalo industry. That’s because there’s a nearby urban population that farmers can sell the meat to directly.

Martin’s rural neighbor, Don Gibbs, has been using that formula for the past eight years. He sells about 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of buffalo meat a year at the Lawrence Farmers Market and out of his home near Globe, in southwest Douglas County.

“I got into it because I thought it was a chance to make a little money and it has worked out OK,” said Gibbs, who has about 20 buffaloes.

Gibbs didn’t reveal profit numbers for his Lone Star Lake Bison Ranch but said he sold the buffalo meat for anywhere from $4 a pound for ground meat to $16 a pound for filets.

When he retires from his construction job in Kansas City in the next few years, Gibbs hopes to make the business more visible by building a small retail shop on his property along U.S. Highway 56.

Gibbs thinks the business may take off because it seems more people are turning to buffalo meat, which is generally lower in fat and cholesterol than beef.

“I hear a lot of people say it tastes like beef should taste,” Gibbs said. “It has a sweeter taste. And people with heart problems seem to like it because they’re tired of eating chicken or turkey all the time.”

Getting started

Martin said buffalo may be a partial answer for some area cattle ranchers looking to increase their revenue because converting a cattle operation to buffalo is relatively simple. He said about the only change needed are stronger holding pens because buffalo are more powerful than cattle.

But if ranchers do enter the buffalo business, Martin said they needed to be prepared to get into the marketing and retailing of the product. Unlike the cattle business, ranchers can’t simply take their buffalo to an auction anytime they want.

Martin said there’s only about two buffalo auctions a year in the state, but the world’s largest happens each year in Salina. This year it’s Dec. 7.

“Getting the product to the consumer is the biggest challenge we have right now,” Martin said. “People who get into it have to realize that retailing is a whole other job. That’s why I don’t do it.”

Instead Martin takes a lesser price for his buffaloes by selling them at auction and to a few other retailers like Gibbs. But he said it was still worth it to him because of the nonmonetary returns the business provided.

“It’s just the romance of it,” Martin said. “It’s native animals on native grass. And it is a sight to see a 2,000-pound animal just take off and run. On a cold morning, they’ll stop and you can see the steam rising off of them. I can walk out my back door and see that. What’s not to love about that?”