By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

NEW RICHMOND, Ohio — She has a Ph.D. in nutrition and a master’s degree in exercise physiology; he is an investment specialist with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

It’s difficult to imagine two people with such technical backgrounds with a buffalo ranch. But David Uible and Cindy Cassell are owners of Vista Grand Ranch, a buffalo farm in New Richmond, Ohio, just east of Cincinnati.

“They’re easy to tend to and they’re low maintenance,” David said.
He is the youngest of nine children. His father farmed land 25 miles to the north, near Mason. After college, David resided in the urban community of Mt. Adams in Cincinnati. He and his wife, Cindy, just wanted to get away from the city lights and find a peaceful place out in the country.

A few months later the couple purchased 171 acres in hilly New Richmond of Clermont County. “We initially bought the property for some open space and when we realized it wasn’t tillable and the fields weren’t flat, we began thinking about some livestock,” David said.

“With the traveling that I do and being gone for two weeks at a time, we needed some kind of animal that would be left to roam and be self-sufficient. Since cattle aren’t that hands-off, we started looking at buffalo. Buffalo was indigenous to the area long before the cattle moved in.”

According to Dan, buffalo require good fencing, pastureland to graze and a water supply. His land could provide those essentials. Cindy’s father had some experience with buffalo and was a member of the National Bison Assoc. In 1985 he and David visited a buffalo farm in Sheboygan, Mich., and returned with 12 female buffalo calves. They named their farm Vista Grand Ranch.

“We just thought it would be fun to have 12 calves on the land and be able to look out our windows and see them in the field,” David said.

By 1998 David and Cindy had 85 head of buffalo on their premise. It wasn’t long before they discovered there was a demand for buffalo meat and soon, the couple and their daughter, Emma, were selling the meat to many upscale restaurants and groceries between Dayton and Cincinnati. It didn’t take them long to learn that buffalo meat is nutritionally dense, low in fat and a good source of nutrition.

“The product is so likeable and the buffalo is so American, just like the eagle or the turkey,” Cindy said.

The family currently has 55 buffalo on their ranch and works closely with a similar ranch near Louisville. Both use a meat processing plant in Indiana. And, the buffalo business is booming.

“We’re supplying only 25 percent of our meat requests,” Dan said. “People are discovering that buffalo is a viable market and it’s red meat that’s healthy. In the past year, business has increased 15 percent because people are eating at home more often.”
No worries about predators on this farm – when coyotes approach, the adult buffalo circle their young to ward off any danger. There’s no worry about competition, either.

“The competition we have is buffalo being shipped in from out West,” David said. “But those products are coming into the area frozen; ours is fresh.”

Cindy adds that buffalo meat is high in iron, high in vitamin A and high in calcium because they’re grass-fed. “I don’t mind promoting this product as a farming person because as a dietitian, I can tell you it’s high in protein, low in fat and I can tell people it’s a good product, even though it is a red meat,” she said.

“The use of buffalo meat won’t increase heart disease or chances of colon cancer.”

For more information about Vista Grand Ranch, call 800-556-3017.