CANTON ? Kansas buffalo producers have seen demand for their product spike and are scrambling to meet a rising demand for hormone-free, low-cholesterol meat options.

Prices at a buffalo auction this week at the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge in central Kansas were twice as high as they were five years ago, and producers are hailing the prospects that demand will continue to rise.

“Everyone is looking for it,” said Dick Gehring, a Newton firefighter and buffalo producer from Moundridge. “Today is a prime example. We have buyers from Iowa, from South Dakota, North Dakota and several other states. They are here to fill their trucks, and they have a lot of orders to fill.

Gehring, a member of the Kansas Buffalo Association board, said it will take another five or six years of growth before producers are able to meet customers’ needs, the Hutchinson News reported Friday.

“Everything is based on carcass price,” he said. “Demand for meat has outstripped supply.”

Turnout at Wednesday’s auction near Canton, in McPherson County, was sparse, but that didn’t stop prices from hitting some of their highest marks this decade.

Prices were averaging $2 to $2.25 a pound for bigger animals, while young calves were selling for $2.50 to $3 a pound. In 2005, prices were roughly $1.20 a pound for calves and $1.10 to $1.20 per pound for older animals.

Jerry Schmidt, a Haven-area producer who also serves on the state buffalo association board, estimated prices were at least 50 percent higher than a year ago, if not more.

Gehring expects prices to be even higher at the association’s annual sale Dec. 4 in Salina. The association has consigned 360 head, and he said prices have the potential to hit $3.25 per pound for bull calves and nearly $3 per pound for heifer calves.

He credits better marketing for the growth in demand for buffalo, touted as rich in vitamins and minerals while low in fat, cholesterol and calories. Since buffalo tend to eat grass and have very little handling by producers, they also tend to be free of hormones.

The National Bison Association said the nation’s buffalo herds were nearly wiped out by the 1880s, and there fewer than 1,000 animals in existence.

Stock numbers have been rising as the buffalo thrived, especially on public lands, and there now are more than 220,000 head, the association said.