Hiway16 Magazine... about people and places in north-central British Columbia, Canada

PAGE ONE
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Buffalo Thrive at Tatalrose

by Diana Roberts

On the south side of Francois Lake, a couple miles from the west end, you will find Ken Smith and his Loma Linda Buffalo Ranch. As a child, Ken grew up on a cattle ranch in New Mexico. In his 20's he bought a farm in Washington State, where he raised Holstein, Shorthorn and Angus cattle.

As you can see, Ken was no stranger to ranching when he moved his family up to Burns Lake in 1969. Along with his wife and seven kids, Ken also brought along 9 head of black Angus cattle. They moved onto the farm at the end of Tatalrose Road, which was previously owned by Fred Paulig.

Ken Smith

As any farmer can tell you, there is not a lot of money to be made in the cattle business, you do it for the love of it. In 1986, Ken decided to sell all the cattle, because too many of them were being killed by dogs, wolves and bear or being poisoned from eating water hemlock.

Ken knew that wild animals don't usually bother buffalo, and that buffalo will not eat water hemlock. A neighbour on the north side of Francois Lake had buffalo at the time, so Ken bought 4 heifers from him.

"Kitt" the bull

Ken's next step was to get a bull buffalo and he had to go to Ft. St. John for that. He needed a way to haul the bull buffalo back, so he tried to rent a horse trailer. Everyone he talked to was afraid a buffalo would wreck their trailer, so Ken bought a small trailer.

It was a big surprise to find that buffalo were easier to haul than cattle. Within 15 minutes of starting out, the bull had laid down, where he stayed for the remainder of the trip.






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