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I Beefalo
are better than Buffalo! How can that be? There are several ways
that we think that beefalo are better!
- First, beefalo are sooooo much easier
to handle than their wild cousins, the buffalo! Buffalo, despite seeming to be quiet slow grazers, are
extremely wild and unpredictable. They can have bursts of speed up to 35 miles per hour, can jump over
tall fences and can turn completely around in the blink of an eye. And they have dangerous horns that most
beefalo don’t have. We have 4 strand electrified barbed wire fencing to keep them where they belong.
Beefalo, on the other hand are very calm, gentle and easy to handle. You can coax them to follow
you to where you want them to go with some good hay or an ear of corn. We keep our beefalo where they belong
with a single strand of electrified fencing.
- Beefalo also grow larger and faster than buffalo. An
important characteristic if you are looking to sell meat. We can butcher our beefalo at 1-1/2 to 2 years
of age and they will have hanging weights from 500 to 750 lbs., depending on whether it is a heifer or a steer.
Our buffalo, raised the exact same way, take 3 years to mature and have hanging weights from 350 to 600 lbs.
- Beefalo cows and heifers calve easily, just like the buffalo. And
their babies are strong and vigorous, standing and nursing within a very short time after birth.
- If you are looking for more than just a meat animal, the
beefalo can also be better than buffalo. We have never milked a buffalo, although we have several beefalo
that provide us with wonderful, healthy milk. We have one beefalo cow that gave us 2 gallons of milk per
day at her peak and milked for an entire year (and I might add, she was enthusiastic and happy to do so each and every day
– we never had to fight with her to come in for milking).
- They
adapt easily to different climates. Here in southern MN, we can get temperatures in the 90’s during
the summer and below zero temperatures in the winter. The beefalo, given trees for shade and wind breaks,
seem to handle the weather extremes better than the buffalo who tend to loose condition more easily than the beefalo.
That is the main reason why we only butcher the buffalo in the fall and early winter months but can butcher our beefalo
year round.
- Did you know that in 1985, the USDA (US
Dept of Agriculture) evaluated beefalo meat and determined that it was sufficiently different nutritionally from
regular beef to earn it a separate and distinct classification apart from regular beef. They found the beefalo meat,
when properly raised to be lower in fat and cholesterol and higher in protein than regular beef. There have
been various studies over the years that show the health benefits of eating beefalo over beef.
- Beefalo and buffalo,
if raised on grass pasture, are both extremely lean, healthy meat. They both are very low in cholesterol
and fat and high in protein. And you get the added bonus of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids when they
are raised on grass. Be sure to ask your farmer how the animals are raised and what they are fed.
It makes a difference!
- And when it comes
to taste, we did a blind taste test (on our pasture raised buffalo and beefalo) and we could NOT tell the difference between
the two types of meat. If we can’t tell, we are pretty sure that you won’t be able to tell
either. Which brings us to economy. Because the beefalo mature up to 1 year sooner than
the buffalo, we can charge less per pound, so you are getting the same healthy, great tasting meat for less money.
- If you are looking to be a niche market producer, we strongly recommend the beefalo!
- If you are looking for healthy, great tasting meat, we strongly recommend the beefalo!
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