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Jack & Sandy among buffalo |
Jack and Sandy Pleasants are fortunate to be stewards of 260 acres of God´s rolling hills in beautiful north central North Carolina, just 35 miles north of Durham and Chapel Hill, NC. The land now called Sunset Ridge Buffalo Farm has been in Jack´s family for 200 years. The name Sunset Ridge was chosen because a unique feature of the property is its view of the setting sun across the rear ridge with reflections on a lake between, making for a glorious and peaceful transition from daylight to dark.
In 1728 buffalo were documented to be living in the Hyco Creek bottoms. In addition, old deeds from the late 1700's reference "buffalo wallows" as surveying landmarks, indicating that buffalo were native to the Sunset Ridge area of Person County.
Jack first saw a herd of buffalo while on a backpacking expedition to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico in 1964. His interest in raising buffalo began when he trekked Philmont again in 1994 and 1996.
As a young man Jack had a vision that someday he would return to live on the family farm and make it into something unique. Prior to buffalo, Jack and | Sandy's previous livestock experience was Toby The Yard Cat (who sleeps on the foot of the bed!)
This prior experience has been invaluable (of no value) as herding buffalo and herding cats are equally challenging. You cannot drive a buffalo anywhere, but you can lead it anywhere it wants to go!
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Jack, Sandy & Toby |
By reading a few books on bison husbandry, studying the nutrition benefits, sampling various cuts of meat, and visiting a number of buffalo ranches across the country, raising buffalo seemed a natural fit for the family farm. After two years of fence and corral building, the initial herd was established with the purchase of eight calves in 2001.
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Original 8 calves |
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The first buffalo calf believed to have been bred and born in
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Proud Mom (11) and Lulu
in 2004 |
Person County in over 200 years was born at Sunset Ridge on June 3, 2004 (LuLu aka Green tag 1). On May 12, 2007 LuLu gave birth to her first calf, making three generations of Sunset Ridge buffalo.
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Proud Lulu and Calf in 2007 |
Through acquisition, birth, and limited harvesting, the herd now numbers around 100. In order to diversify genetic lines, seed stock is from quality herds in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Colorado, and North Dakota.
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