Buffalo Roam at Roxboro Man's Home

ROXBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina farmer is raising some unusual livestock and is making a living at it. At his home on the range in Person County, the buffalo roam.

Jack Pleasant has nearly 90 head of buffalo on his farm in Roxboro.

“They can run about 40 mph and they can turn on a dime,” Pleasant said.

The buffalo mean business, and so does Pleasant, who offers tenderloins, T-bone steaks, and other cuts of meat that would normally come from beef cattle.

“It tastes just a little bit sweeter than beef,” he said. “But there's less fat, less calories, less cholesterol, more protein and more Vitamin B-12 in buffalo than there is in beef, chicken, pork or fish.”

Buffalo are actually native to North Carolina. A surveyor recorded seeing them in the state in 1728. In the 1880s, there were less than 1,000 buffalo known to exist in the world. But they've stormed back.

“They do everything as a herd,” Pleasant said.