Helping to Preserve the American Plains Bison with Theresa and Ron Miskin

In this episode of Hunting Matters, Joe Betar and Ramon Robles are joined by Theresa and Ron Miskin of The Buffalo Wool Co. The Miskin family has been raising American bison for nearly 40 years and has spent the last decade developing a U.S.-based supply chain that supports bison ranchers, small mills, and local manufacturers. 

They discuss their mission to preserve the American Plains Bison, the unique process of creating products from bison wool, and how they are contributing to the future of sustainable bison ranching. Tune in to hear about their passion for these majestic animals and their high-quality wool products, as well as insights into the bison industry and conservation efforts​.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
M This is Joe b. Tar.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
This is Ramon Roeblust, and we talked to fascinating people
about their love of hunting, shooting, sports and the outdoors.
This is Honey Matters.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Ramon Roeblest.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Good to see you, doctor b Tar.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I've seeing you in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Man, everything good you got you got some animals behind
you there. I don't know if you notice it, helmet.
Oh yeah, but they.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Played My tigers pulled out a tough one versus All
Miss and overtime. We never led the whole game and
then we won an overtime.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
And what ranked seventh or something?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, the seventh or eighth now I think. Yeah, it
was a good weekend at football weekend.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
As of this recording, they are in the top ten.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Okay, so we'll just go back to this and we
have Arkansas next week. So, uh, what's been going on
with you?

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Not a lot. I'm trying to think. Oh, well, of course,
we're getting ready for Halloween. It's the kid's favorite holiday.
I mean, you know, we get to go to strangers
doors and they'll give us candy. Yeah, yep, that's how we.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Can't beat that. That's awesome. Yeah, I'm looking forward to
Halloween actually this year, and we had a little cool
weather last night, so hopefully it won't be one hundred
degrees beautiful man. So today joining us Ramone, I know
you're a close you're a kind of a clothes hound. Yes, so,
Teresa and Ron Miskin of the Buffalo Wool Company, I've
been affiliated for They don't know me, but I know them.

(01:34):
I have been using their products for many years. In fact,
I still have the same pair of fingerleish gloves, the
Advantage fingerless gloves that I bought years and years ago,
that are in my backpack, and I bought them specifically
for bow hunting. And I love them because I can
wear them. You know, temperatures vary a lot in Texas
during hunting season. I can wear them just about in
any climate. But I love that. I love having the

(01:55):
fingers that So, Teresa and Ron, thank you guys so
much for joining us today.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
Well, thank you very much for having us. This is
an honor.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Here where Well, well, we'll let you determine that.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
When it's over, we'll ask again. In an hour.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, Ramoni usually gives a chance. It gives our guests
a chance or an option to bow out after about
ten minutes if the foolishness and nonsense is too much.
So where are you guys talking to us from today?

Speaker 4 (02:21):
We're up in Weatherford, Texas, just about an our west
of Fort Worth.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh, you know, Ramone, When I think Buffalo, I'm thinking
they're up in Montana. They're in the mountains and weather
for Texas. So we're talking to some of our Texas
brethren here. And the Buffalo Wool Company. I'm gonna mention
it several times during the podcast, but their website is
Buffalo woolco dot com. And uh, I'll probably say this
again too, but shopping season is coming, Christmas and the

(02:47):
Holidays is coming, man, and I have got a list,
as I know you do, Ramone, of things that are
on the wish list. Now some new stuff I'm seeing here.
But guys, we want to talk to you a little
bit about your company and your background and that's sort
of so tell us a little bit about yourselves. Have
you always been in the Buffalo business, the world business?
How did you guys get kind of get started?

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Well, honestly, no, we have not been in the Buffalo
business that you know forever. My family did start raising
bison in the eighties, and when you talk about Texas bison,
there are more bison ranches in Texas than any other
state in the country. Yeah, there are seventy seven registered
ranches in the state of Texas, which wow, And honestly,
most of them are pretty small. We don't have any

(03:30):
you know, ten thousand animal herds like South Dakota does.
But there's plenty of people that have been working on
this comeback. But that wasn't the question you asked.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
How we got.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
Started totally accidently. I had restaurants. Teresa was a social worker,
and my father called me one day and said, kind
of all this buffalo hair, what should we do with it?
And he put it on eBay and a lady in
Boston and a lady in Colorado started bidding against each
other three pound box of nasty, dirty buffalo hair that

(04:02):
had been picking up off the fence line and brush
and BlackBerry bushes and such. That three pound box of
buffalo hair sold for four hundred and twenty dollars, and
you kind of go why, you know, well, you know
that that started a whole new series of learning about
and first we learned how to clean the fiber get

(04:23):
it washed, and then dehair separate that coarse, crunchy stuff
so that hand spinners could sit at a spinning wheel
and make their own yarn. And then as we learned
to do these things, we learned how to spin, and
then learned how to knit, and then weave. And then
at some point there was a fly fishing shop in Gatlinburg,
Tennessee that was selling Actually back up, the wife had

(04:48):
a yarn shop on one side and the husband had
a fly a fly fishing shop on the other side,
and they just started selling yarn like crazy. And it
turns out they were knitting fingerless gloves for fly measurement.
Because it works like crazy. It stays warm when it's wet,
it is basically impervious to cold, and it just works.

(05:10):
So next thing we know, we start looking around the
US for somebody who can knit us some gloves. And
you know, here we are fifteen years later and we
make stuff.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
That's cool. That's cool.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Now, before we get too deep into the interview, are
the words bison and buffalo interchangeable or there is a difference?

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Right?

Speaker 4 (05:33):
Well, everything we have in North America are the American
planes bison or woods bison. We don't have buffalo, which
would be like the water buffalo, the Cape buffalo, the
Cushiatic buffalo, although we've called them buffalo since you know
we got here. Yeah, and you know, when you actually
talk to somebody who's raising them, they don't care. But

(05:56):
when I do have the label of product, we label
it with American bison.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
But then again, we're the Buffalo Wool Company, so it's
not bull, it's not buffalo, and it makes no sense whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
You got you I've worked with Joe for two years
and he never took time out to explain that to me,
So I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Run well, I'm totally now totally confused.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
But the company name came from the eighteen seventies. It
was part of the Hudson Bay Company, but Manitoba. Yeah,
by the time we got around to wanting a name
for a company, they weren't using it anymore, so we
stole it.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Nice, gotcha, there you go. You know, for me, uh,
being a as a kid, I used to love Westerns
and shows about mountain men, that sort of thing. And
I think that that, you know, the bison has a
certain amount of and sure that you guys deal with it.
All the time. So I don't know if the romanticism
is there anymore, but to me, the bison is symbolic

(06:52):
of our history in the Old West, and there's a
lot of romanticism. And I'm thinking about the novels and
the movies and things I've read and watched over the years.
Is growing up? Does it does? Does this animal? This
man will hold the same attraction to you?

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Guys?

Speaker 4 (07:05):
I will never, Yeah, absolutely, you will never. I don't
care who you are. I don't care how hard your
heart is or whatnot. You can't look at a bison
out on the planes and just see back into history
and see that what this country was from the beginning
and what could be again. So yeah, it's a They're
just majestic. You can't look at them and not think that.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
And to back that point up, I took the family
to Yellowstone this spring or last summer actually, and when
those things get out on the road and they're right
next to your vehicle and you see just in fact
how big and beautiful and majestic they are, you go wow.
I mean, looking at him at two hundred yards you know,

(07:49):
over there, versus looking at him, you know, eye to eye.
There they're special animals.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
Oh, they really are. It's it's a it's a privilege
to be able to work with them, and it's really
an honor to start getting to know these people that
have created the greatest comeback story in history. You know,
we got down to just a few of these things
at the turn of the century, and nowadays we're over
a half million between US and Canada. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
How many did did you say?

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Last? I saw we were just over a half a
million between the US and Canada.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
And most of them are in private herds. I mean,
there are some conservation organizations such as Yellowstone, Caprock Canyon,
Flat Lake, but most of them are privately raised.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Got it?

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Got it?

Speaker 2 (08:40):
So take me by just a little bit.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Was it your dad that started the business?

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Sort of? Yes?

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Okay, yeah, okay, kind of got the idea and things rolling,
and you guys took it round with it.

Speaker 4 (08:53):
He got the idea started rolling, We started what was
originally called the Brown Hair Project, trying to get fights
and ranchers to collect fiber and make it available. And
then he and I in two thousand and five started
a company called Buffalo Gold just selling the fiber for
hand spinners and then evolved into yarns. Teresa joined me

(09:15):
in twenty eleven and we founded the Buffalo Wool Company,
doing more of the ready to wear stuff and getting
on that end of it.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Got it, got it. So you guys, you know, looking
at your website and some of the information you share
with me, you guys basically operate in a network too.
There's bison ranchers, there's independent meals, there's local manufacturers on
this thing. Does how do all those parts work together
to bring his socks and clothing and all these great

(09:45):
things you guys create.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
Well, it obviously starts with the rancher, and the reason
that this was started originally again with that and the
hair project is trying to find a part of the
animal that didn't have value and find a way to
add value to it. Because bison ranching has never been
in extremely profitable endeavor. Most people get into it for
the passion of the animals. But when you're raising anything,

(10:09):
the more parts of it you can sell that actually
have a commercial value, the more worthwhile it is to
raise those animals, the more incentive there is to people
to become bison ranchers. So what we do now is
We primarily share the hides at the packing plants when
the bison are processed for meat, So we will station

(10:30):
a couple of shearing crews at the different plants, and
when the animals are processed, we share the hides. From there,
it goes to a scouring plant, where the fiber has
to get washed because you don't want it smelling like
a wet buffalo. And there's been a little learning curve
on that, but we can pretty well denature the fiber
completely of any sense, without any chemicals, which is really

(10:52):
kind of and then it has to be dehaired, separate
that coarse, crunchy guard hair the outer stuff from that
fine soft down that we for the really insulating products,
and then excuse me, and then it has to go
to be spun into yarn. You can't make anything out

(11:13):
of it if you don't have the yarn available, So
we work with spinning mills around the United States. Currently,
most of our production has done it a mill up
in Wisconsin and they just do an amazing job of
blending the fiber, spinning it into yarn, and then we
send it to a sock mill in osj Iowa. We've
got a knitter just outside Liberty Hill, Texas. It does

(11:34):
an amazing job on the beanies and ballaclavas and scarves
and such. We work with a felt mill in Maine,
just trying to keep everything American made and keep us
textile workers working. From when we started doing this twenty
years ago, I've watched more spinning mills and construction companies
just clothes. We have lost a lot of the United

(11:59):
States textile depertise and equipment.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Right Well, it's it sounds like, you know two things
that kind of we're kind of front of mine for me.
Number one is the bison and the fact that you
use everything from the snout to the tail. It eliminates
it from just being a commodity. That's the same principle
of hunting and conservation is that you know, if there's

(12:23):
no value to it, it's gonna go away. It's like
potato farmers if they if nobody's gonna eat French fries,
people are gonna stop growing potatoes. So it's it's really
good to see you guys. You guys are actually helping
conserve conserve this this majestic animal of the American Plains, bison.
And the other thing is is I think it's I
just remote and I are both of the opinion that
we love the fact that things are done in the US,

(12:46):
and that so many people are affected by this process.
And I hate to be corny, but I slip on
my pair of gloves now and I'm not I'm gonna go.
Not only don't not only are they cool and they warm,
but a whole lot of people are making their living
off of this off of this product.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
And that's the biggest thrill for us. Is being able
to go and talk to the people at the mills
and we get feedback, We exchange ideas, and we know
that what we do helps provide a living and that's
a pretty cool thing. And being able to shake the
hand of the people that you work with, that's wonderful.

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whoever wants to answer this. I'm currently shopping for socks

(16:06):
and if I want an every day pair, which one
am I gonna want to pick? Because there's a lot here?

Speaker 6 (16:14):
Are you in Houston? I am The Boss SoC is
a great sock. It's a short sock. Was in tennis
shoes or hiking boots. We've got marathon runners that use them.
The Casual Crew two point oh, nice talk. It is
great to transition from the cold winter into the office or.

Speaker 4 (16:35):
Wherever you're going.

Speaker 6 (16:36):
Okay, that's a good everyday one that you can just
put in pretty much any boot or any.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Shoe you got.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
And that was the boss sock, you said.

Speaker 6 (16:44):
Boss SoC and the two point.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Oh crew got it.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Joe, you need anything while I'm in here? Can I
add anything to the card?

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Can you grab me a pair of the Advantage Gear
compression socks. My ankles have been swelling a little bit lately,
and I can stop eating salt and it's some compression
because I'm an old man. Now, yeah, grab me a
couple of pair. I need boot socks and I needed
for hunting. So it's how I mean. Ramon brings up

(17:12):
a good point. Tell our listeners in our in our
viewers share a little bit. How broad is this product line?
I mean, I know you can't go through all of it.
That kind of walks us through the general categories of
things that people can find on your website.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
Well, when we started, we made a pair of socks
and really thought, you know, that's all you need is
I'll pair us a well. The casual crew, Yeah, the
Casual Crew were our first It was just an everyday
basic flatnet sock. Well, the more you get to know
people and you realize how many different activities are out there,
how many different types of footwear, what the different climates are,

(17:44):
Like all of a sudden, it just kind of goes
and next thing you know, you kind of get excited
about a project, like you're talking about the compression socks.
I had had very little knowledge or ever, I'd never
worn compression socks, but we started getting a lot of
requests from customers, so you start playing with it, you learn,
and then you do actually want Yeah, I can look

(18:07):
at them if we have some of the the EKG
stuff on it, mostly because it is medical professionals, but
we have we focus on hunting and outdoors because that's
who we are, that's what we do. We've hunt, we fish,
we hike, we climb, we we like doing silly things
outdoors and and so that was mostly making stuff that
we wanted because it didn't exist, and that's driven a

(18:30):
lot of our stuff. But lately there have been more.
You get to know people, you see the need, and
then all of a sudden you try and fill that need.
We've just recently started a line of kids stuff. We
swore we never do kids things because you know, kids
grown quickly, but we spend a lot of time in

(18:51):
Alaska and have gotten pretty involved in the mushroom community
up there, and then you start meeting little kid mushers.
We've got one Spencer Ster he's seven years old, but yeah,
you started it. He started at seven years old doing
twenty mile runs with one dog.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
And I'm going to support and protect any kid that's
doing something like that, right that's that stuff you want
to encourage, so you want to make sure that they
have the best year possible.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
And that kids line is called the Red Dog Kids Line, right, Yeah,
what all is included in that So far.

Speaker 4 (19:27):
It's just socks and hats yet. Yeah, yeah, talking, we're
still getting started on that and trying to figure out
what makes sense. We've had some issues with Again, we
lost two spinning mills in the last two years, so
our production kind of got slowed down. We got behind
on glove yarns, so that's why our glove scenario is

(19:50):
pretty weak at the moment. But yeah, we haven't had
had time to get into kids' gloves yet.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
But you also got to be a little conscious with
the products that you want to introduce. I mean, you
can't get over your skis, I guess, is what I'm
trying to say.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
No, that's very true, and again we've kind of gotten
to our capacity. It's basically it's me and Tea and
my sister in law and one other friend who we
work out of our little mini ranch here. We have
turned our horse barn into a warehouse. But we're kind

(20:29):
of at the end to end of how much we
can actually do so it's.

Speaker 6 (20:34):
Really limited by the fiber.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
Yeah, that's the other side to it is there's only
so much available.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
You can't like sneak cat hair in there to thin
it out a little bit and stretch it. Yeah, the
other people do that, but now you are now.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Obviously you know you're in this business to make a living.
But it seems to me that the general kind the
general theme of behind your story is to, you know,
help preserve the American Plains bison. Are you guys involved
with any organizations or any groups or anything as far
as direct hands on dealing with these bison and proliferation
of the species or kind of how does that play

(21:15):
into your business model?

Speaker 4 (21:17):
Well, it plays very strongly into our business model. Currently
I serve on the board of directors of the National
Bison Association and Teresa's on the border directors of the
National Buffalo Foundation. We've been involved from I was Texas
Bison Association president or vice president for I don't know
twelve years. I'm actually cooking if you're available, not this

(21:40):
coming weekend, but weekend after next we are having the
Texas Bison Conference out in East Texas Greenville, and I'm cooking,
so it'll be fun.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
I'd love to go, my man. But I'll tell you
one thing, I'll be sitting in a deer blind but Ramone.
I saw Ramone's eyes light up when you said you're cooking.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
How are you cooking?

Speaker 4 (21:59):
By absolutely?

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Of course. Yeah. I love a bison burger. They're delicious.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
Well, have burgers and steaks. I've got calf fries for
appetizers for Saturday night. That's something I have never served before. Vivena.
But it'll be fun. But my father was one of
the founders of the Texas Bison Association, and this is
our this conference coming up is our thirtieth anniversary. So
that's that's sort of a big deal. As far as

(22:29):
other involvement in bison reason, I were on the on
the team that really pushed hard to get bison selected
for National Mammal At the time, we were traveling around. Yeah,
we were traveling around the country and meeting a lot
of people and kind of got active in that.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
Do you know we we we because of our our
history in the United States, we we tie the the
bison in with the Native American people in their tribes.
Are there any and you know, I know, I don't

(23:06):
know enough about it. I know enough about it just
to be you know, casually uh informed, But is there
any history? And I know that some Native American people's
hold some bison, you know, like you hear the old thing.
I think Ramona and you and I talked about it
one time, where if there's a white buffalo or white
bison born that they're considered sacred. Do you guys have

(23:27):
any interactions with Native American tribes or are the people
as far as the bison go, are there any Are
there any of those groups involved in bison you know,
manufacturing like you guys do.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
Oh. Absolutely. The ib C, the Inner Tribal Buffalo Councal,
is a phenomenal organization that has done some great work.
We work directly with Ute Nation for some of our products,
hides and things like in the Jerkey. Yeah, they're they
my favorite restaurant. But no, the Native community has done

(24:05):
a really good job. They've just they're working very hard
to put bison back on tribal lands and they've been
very successful. The organization is really well structured and diverse
with different tribes and different nations. The people that we've met,
Troyline Are the director, is just a phenomenal guy. And

(24:27):
I don't know if you've had a chance to look
at we're making currently in the middle of a film
on bison called Native Prodigies of an Icon and I'll
make sure that you have a link for that if
you get a chance. But great, it's it's really neat
seeing seeing bison end up back in the Shoshone tribe.
We just got back from a wich tom Ountain, which

(24:48):
is preserving Oklahoma that's Native run and been running bison
for quite a while. Yeah, they're doing good things, very
good things.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
I just I asked the question one because I know
it's such a it's such an get part of their
history and their culture and their traditions, and I just
was just kind of curious not knowing that world that
you guys live in.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
Well a lot of it also is helping them with
the economics of it, because again, with anything, the world
runs on money, and if you're going to do something,
it's got to be sustainable, profitable, you've got to be
able to make a live and doing it and watching
them be able to provide for just just into the
Native school food system is really amazing. And Turner's organization

(25:32):
has actually helped a lot on that, which is kind
of interesting watching animals natives. To be able to have
bison for lunch every day at school is pretty flipping cool.

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dot com slash hunting matters. Did you say I meant
to ask earlier, did you say the bison was the
national mammal?

Speaker 4 (27:59):
It is. As of twenty sixteen, we got we got
recognized as a national mantal.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
I was hoping it would be me. But that's all right.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Like you see, you know your profile on the flag.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
National mammal.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
That's awesome. Let me ask you something kind of all
out of out of uh, out of the out of
the industry you guys do with peripherally, We here in
the hunting and conservation world a lot of times of
uh you know, areas like Yellowstone, the by the bison herds.
It start at prolipher eight and then they're dropping into Yellowstone,
They're dropping into areas that are populated, et cetera, et cetera.

(28:36):
And you know there's been uh, there's been uh management
peers by the federal government when they go in and
they manage these hurts by calling that's the only way
to really do it because you guys know better than
we do. Bys aren't gonna go where buy some want
to go. You know, I always laugh at people and go,
you know, it'd be cool if we had a bison
or buffalo, you know, on our ranch. Might you wanna
you wanna? Uh, maybe rethink that based on the fences

(28:59):
and the and the feeders and things I see that
you have out of here. But what are your thoughts
on that. I mean, you guys obviously aren't dealing with
I don't guess with the while bison herds and things
like that. But I know it's a big point of
controversy sometimes because you know, people in hunting and conservation
understand you have to call hurts to maintain hurt health.

(29:21):
But there's that other side of the group or the
other side of the population. It's like, oh, you can't there,
you can't you know, you can't shoot bison. You can't
do this, can't do that. I see the look on
your face. Or the ones even worse, the big trend
on a YouTube videos the last couple years, the ones
you get out and try to pet them and end
up twenty feet in the air. I kind of like

(29:41):
to get y'alls take on that.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
Well, because we write a couple of different newsletters for
different parts of the organization. We've got all sorts of
Google alert set up for bison in the news, and
three times a week there's some turan who gets thrown
by a bison and that's just stupid. Yeah, But for
some of your original question, we were at an event
and somebody comes up to us and says, why can't

(30:06):
the bison just roam free like squirrels. There's reasons, right.

Speaker 6 (30:16):
They've never been near a bison to understand the concepts.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, well they can't climb trees, right, yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
Right, they're horrible at climbing trees, even on private ranches.
They're not domesticated, right, Yeah, there are still very much
wild animals, but there have been some really successful wild releases.
There's a a group up in Alaska that's been releasing
wood bison back into the wild for re establishing the

(30:45):
hunting population and that's been phenomenal. They've done a great
job at that. It's still a really hard tag to pull.
But you know, family eats well, if you do, you know,
I do think there's with with anything, you got to
you know, have a little bit of responsibility in what
you put out into the environment. Letting wild bison just

(31:07):
roam free would probably not be safe for a lot
of people, but it sure would be cool.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I just I just love seeing
them no matter what I know. It no't matter what
environment I see them in. It's it doesn't matter. I
just think they're just very cool animals.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
Part of that calling also puts it back into the
meat production, so I don't think people connect that either.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
True, that's true.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
Yeah, they're not just shooting and then letting them lie.
They are.

Speaker 6 (31:37):
They go back into the meat production.

Speaker 4 (31:38):
And that's what Turner donated some land so that when
animals do come out of Yellowstone, they can be held
and go into the native food population.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Yeah, that's that's a very good point. Yeah, you forget
about that because you know, I've heard of other countries.
A few years back, unfortunately, New Zealand decided they were
going to shoot a bunch of tar and let them
lie on the side of the mountains. And that's just
not I don't know too many people who eat tar,
but but you know, still just just the waste. But
I know that with the bison that went every time,
every time they harvest them, that every part of it

(32:07):
goes to some usefulness.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Why would they do that to tar? What was the
point behind that?

Speaker 2 (32:13):
New Zealand has no native mammals. All those mammals living
in New Zealand stag, tar, chammis or all imports most
of them when English shuttlers came over, and so they
have no real predators. And somebody decided, well, there's this
little native plant that was being eaten by the tar,
and that we needed to decimate some of the tar

(32:34):
population and just shoot them from helicopters and let them
lie because they were eating native forage, which is you know,
we fought against that for a couple of years and
it's been it's been stopped and overturned. The Prime Minister
of New Zealand who mandated that is no longer in office.
But they just not only was it a wasteful it
was a waste of natural resources and animals, but it

(32:56):
was also a waste of tourism dollars for these hunters
and outfitters and eyes and people doing helicopter tours to
see these animals, because there's a lot of money in that.
I mean, you know, you look at tourism is probably
one of the number one industries in New Zealand, so
you know, but we can go to that rabbit hole
all day. But yeah, it's pretty ridiculous, you know.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
I paralyzing the deer right right.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, it's you know, waste, wastefulness of anything. Just irritates
the you know what out of me. I just I
can't stand it. I can't stand it. You guys don't
own any bison, do you keep them around the house
in the backyard.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
Not at the moment. My father, who had the ranch
up near in good Night, Texas near Amarillo, literally just
sold it about three weeks ago to the state of Texas. Yeah. Yeah,
the Charles good Knight's house was part of the original
j A ranch.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
He was Mary good Night at the turn of the century.
Is one of the people credited with saving the bison.
So they wanted to put bison back on good Night's
ranch there, and that's where our herd is at the moment.
We have five acres out here. I've got some long
horns and chickens and pigs and such, but I don't
have we don't have room for bison.

Speaker 6 (34:10):
It sure would be nice on the road forty weeks
of the year.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Ye wow, wow. How do you feel about that? About say,
Texas taking over that ranch and and and bring kem
trying to bring it back to its original to its
origin story.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
It's really exciting. And I don't usually get excited about
government taking over anything. That's normally just the death now yep.
But this is the historical Society and they've got they've
got some funding, they've got some expertise, and I really
do believe they're doing it right. They've got there's a
lot of oversight up there, just from the community that

(34:50):
is keeping an eye on this and making sure that
things go right. They've done a beautiful job with the
Caprock Canyon Herd. We have a friend who's park ranger
over there who has done you're talking about a well
managed bison heard caprac Canyon is one of the best
in the country. If Donald is going to oversee what's

(35:11):
happening at good night, that's a very good thing. I
think they will do a good job with it.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
I will say this about the Texas Parks and Wallife Department.
They you know, they've been in an acquisition mode the
last few years, and and they're there it seems to
me outside looking in that the acquisition of these properties
are for historical and restoration purposes, if you know, not
not much of anything else. That they're not commercializing them.
Of course, you know, if you go to a state park,
you pay a fee, that sort of thing. But I

(35:38):
think they've done a really good job of Actually, you know,
let's let's just face it. You know, you've got foreign
people coming into the into the state of Texas and
other states and buying up gobs of land and turning
it into property for manufacturing plants and that sort of thing.
And I think I think, you know, I'm speaking on
behalf of the department, but I think some of the

(35:59):
focus in the mission, know, the department of buying these
lands up is for the for the sole purpose of preservation,
preservation of Texas history, preservation of Texas land, and trying
to restore them to their to their origins.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
I will heartedly agree, and I think they're they're it's
good to see we don't have a lot of like
publicly accessible hunting lands in Texas, says you know, I
mean the many other places, but just having the conservation
herds is a good thing, and I think it will
it will benefit both. The parks do have auctions every

(36:33):
year to sell off excess animals. Cap Rock animals are
a different strain of planes bison than anything else. The
babies are all born black as opposed to the copper
colored like like typical bison. You know, when it's a
cap rock bison, and they're very well, very much sought
after and the only way you can get them is
from the state.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
Are there any pure strains of ison still left in
the in the US story in North America?

Speaker 4 (37:01):
Well, that question really depends on who you talk to.
Doctor David Durr. He's a geneticist down at Texas A
and M.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yep, we work with him.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
Excellent. Doctor is a great guy. His his philosophy basically
is if it looks like a buffalo, it's a buffalo.
And most bison there there's a lot of prohibition against
cross breeding. You don't see people raping b below that,
you know, everybody I do get asked about that frequently. Yeah,

(37:34):
that's that doesn't really happen. Bison ranchers don't don't cross breathe.
There is still some cattle genetics left over from bringing
them back, but for the most part, animals are pretty clean.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Got it?

Speaker 4 (37:52):
Got it?

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yeah? I was always because I've heard you. I've heard
those stories too, like there's only one pure strain of
bison remaining in the world and it's here, and so
I didn't know if there was any truth to that
or or you know, status of it is.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
There are what they call five foundation herds that were
kind of from at the turn of the century, places
that bison still existed, cap Rock being one, flat lake
Yellowstone and there most of the animals have basically come
out of that. Again, c there was some cross breeding,
you know, early eighteen hundreds, nineteen or sorry, early nineteen

(38:28):
hundreds into the sixties seventies, but that hasn't been the
case for a while.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Got it, got it?

Speaker 1 (38:37):
So what can myself, an average Joe do to help
with the bison population? I mean, what can I actively
do to ensure that these animals continue to thrive like
they're doing now?

Speaker 4 (38:52):
Okay, pretty simple, Fire up your grilled get some bi
from stakes. Again, when it has commercial value, that's that
is the biggest incentive to to raising and producing more.
I mean, if we if we put all legal recipes
on you know, the menu and early they'd be everywhere.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah, that's what you said.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yeah, I've got to get I gotta gheit my butcher
to look into that. There's a guy who's a little
uh you butcher shop down the street from me, and
I don't think he's ever carried bison or I've never
seen it in the right because got just about everything else.
HECKYV makes boot an he's got to be able to
get bison.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
Ranchers down in your area too, So.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
Chef, Yeah, I'm I'm kind of kind of thinking about
what the menu is for Football Saturday that's coming weekend,
so I'm definitely gonna have to seek that out. So
what's uh, what's some of the newest things you guys
have come out with besides the kids line, Is there
anything else that's kind of a new and revolutionary that
you're really proud of?

Speaker 6 (39:55):
Right for the ladies, Yeah, we've just.

Speaker 4 (39:59):
Taken some the yarn that we make for our boss products,
the Bison. It's a Bison brino bamboo. We've just made
a whole line of hats and scarves and gators and
gloves for ladies and that's that's brand new this season.

Speaker 6 (40:15):
They don't like the brown all the time.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Yeah, not everything has to be milk chocolate brown, right,
But other than that, really just honestly, this year has
been sort of a trying to get production back up.
We have sold out now pretty much every year that
we've been in business, and this last two years losing

(40:37):
two spinning mills with a big blow. So we're getting
caught back up. The demand is steadily increasing and we're
just trying to do the things that we've done for years,
getting our trekor socks back in stock, the pro gear stuff,
getting getting that built back up to meet the demand.

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Speaker 2 (44:03):
Now you kind of glossed over this, uh this line here,
but I'm looking at it. It's third It's like it's
bison fiber, marino bamboo. So forgive my ignorance, but how
did you get the bamboo in there?

Speaker 4 (44:18):
Well, we have we have a we live in Texas.
It's hot, you know. You tell the Texan to go
put on wolf socks in July and and most of
the time you'll get laughed at. So we really wanted
to look at something that would wick and breathe really well.
Bison fiber wicks very strongly, but getting something that would

(44:38):
add a little bit more ventilation to it and helps
and the but the bamboo actually helps with that pretty well. Yeah,
So that's that's where where that came about. It was
basically just experimenting. We we have worked with yeah, any
number of different fibers, and you know, we'll play with it,

(44:58):
see how it performs, the it feels, you know, what wears,
and then if it if it's something that passes mustard,
we go to production with it.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Got it, got it?

Speaker 1 (45:09):
How long will it take to I'm sorry, how long?
What does it take from the time you decide to
start making a product to when you can put it
on the shelves virtually to sell?

Speaker 4 (45:20):
That's a that's a very good question. From harvest to
shelf is approximately a year? Well yeah, oh wow, So
that's like I said, we have there's a bunch of
different steps between the scouring, the de herring, the blending,
and the spinning and then the knitting, and those are
done in different places around around the US, so it's

(45:43):
not fast. Yeah, we kind of have to keep that
pipeline full. But yeah, it's it's a good year from
from sheer shear to socks.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
And this may sound like a silly question, but when
something sells out, is that good or is that is
that bad? Meaning men, we should have made twice as much,
but you can't, though, I guess.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
Right, you can't just order bison fiber from anything. We
have to actually go sure, it.

Speaker 6 (46:10):
Ourselves, which comes back to what type of winter did
the animals have and what is our volume for that year,
So the water condition comes into what the animals you know, gruing.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
But as far as if it sells out, yeah, that's
usually a good sign, especially that people like it. If
we have something that doesn't, it means we did something wrong. Again,
it's not like we can make everything in all of it,
but you know, we have to kind of plan and
figure out, well, we're going to put X number of
pounds into this style, X number pounds into this style.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
And there's quality control. I mean, you can't just be
turning them out, you know. Willy nilly, No, Teresa.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
You bring up a good point. I know that you
know in the Western Mountain States that the last couple
of winters have been really rough on all animals. Have
you seen those issues and the Texas herds over the
past couple of years that they've been maintaining. Okay, that's
really your area.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
Well, and here's the thing that a worst winter just
means a better coat for the bison. They're not afraid
of cold. Their native Rangeland goes from north of Barrow, Alaska,
down past Mexico City. So negative aby does not bother
a bison in these cold, wet winters have done nothing
but help our business and for the most part, the

(47:30):
bison herds. The reason that we try and promote them
to ranchers, especially in the northern countries or northern parts
of the country, is because they are so much more
winter hard even cattle.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Yeah, are there any other factories? I mean, you guys
talked about the mills shutting down. We've talked about, you know,
availability and that sort of thing. Are there Are there
any other challenges you guys face year to year in
maintaining stock and inventory and that sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
I don't think anything more than anyone else. Our biggest
distraction is just are being distracted and wanting to go hunt,
fish and hiking play. We've we've tailored our business to
where we get to spend a month in Alaska every
year nice so, which is wonderful and fun, and we
bring home lots of freezer food. But it's hard. It's

(48:19):
a little harder to get everything done while you're out
there standing in a river.

Speaker 8 (48:23):
Sure you know what that's like, I do, that's right?
Oh so yeah, go ahead, I said, We.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
Could work harder, We could do more. We could outsource
to China. We could open a big office, hire a
bunch of people, sell Torii and things like that, or Cabela's.
That's not who we are, That's not what we want.
We want to stay as close to the ranchers as
possible and as close to our consumers as possible.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
How do you go ahead from how do you manage marketing?
How do people find out about abu your product?

Speaker 4 (49:00):
We do things like this and talk to people like you. No,
that is the best of word of mouth has really
been what what did it for us? We use events
all over the country. I don't want to pay Google
and that to advertise with him. I don't think that's
a wise use of funds. I don't know. We do

(49:22):
have a pretty large social media following. I write a
newsletter every week. That's our best marketing source.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
No super Bowl commercial, no Ramone's asking because you know,
he's a social media influencer. And if you had him
model your stuff on his Facebook or his TikTok or whatever, yeah,
I mean you will be able to keep up with
demand because he's kind of a big deal.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
Yeah. Now we we have a box writing the ship.
But I'm sorry we didn't get it out before this.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
I don't know what TikTok is.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
This is TikTok, not an Apple watch either.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
I love it.

Speaker 7 (50:03):
So you guys, you guys obviously love the outdoors.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
What do you do in your spare time? When you
go to Alaska? You spend time in the outdoors. What
are you doing out there?

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Mostly we're fishing. That's that's my happy spot, standing in
a river throwing flies at something that's herts well.

Speaker 6 (50:20):
Fishing and wildlife photography.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
Ye, she's determined to get eaten by something.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
Yeah, a great shot.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
There's a movie right there. I can think of worse
ways to go, much worse ways. What do you like
to shoot, Teresa? Anything that moves or just landscapes.

Speaker 4 (50:42):
There's anything that's unique.

Speaker 6 (50:44):
I like chasing things up the auroras or.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
Comment.

Speaker 6 (50:49):
Last night we had a sandstorm come in, so I
didn't get that. I don't know, just the unique things.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
What are the next two things on the list I've read.

Speaker 6 (51:00):
I'll read something and I'll chase it. So we've gone
to glav Ago so we could swim with the you know,
they wanted to swim in the ocean, with you. We've
done I don't know, so many crazy things were.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
Two up next to our Churchill and polar bears and
swimming with the orcas in Norway, Norway. I just learned
about that.

Speaker 6 (51:21):
So they come into the islands and they chase the
herring and you've got dry shoots on, and they put
you out there with the with the pods and.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yeah you can go start playing with them, will you
go ahead and have a good time.

Speaker 6 (51:36):
But it's the photograph. You got to chase that photograph.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
Yeah, I respect that.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
That's cool though. I admire that though that you guys
are you guys are seeking out these to most people
relatively obscure things and just go on and do and
just experience and see it. I mean, that's just that's incredible.

Speaker 4 (51:51):
Yeah, well we have we have a mantra and that's
every morning we wake up and say, you got twenty
four hours, what are we going to do? Don't screw
it out? Yeah right, So we say that every single
morning and go find something fun to do.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
So you regret this one hour you've wasted not a bit. Man,
I could have been swimming with door because now I'm
talking to fools.

Speaker 4 (52:15):
You are and we appreciate your doing that.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
So, uh, holiday seasons coming up, we talked about it before.
Are you guys going to be able to meet the
holiday demand this year? Never have been, never have been,
So people need to be ordering now.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
Well, yeah, because there's nothing worse than telling somebody, yeah,
we were out of large and that you know, the
trekkers or pro gears, you know, And that's the truth is.
We can only make what we can do.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
So sure, well, Ramona, and I also I don't want
to be the other end of hey, ordered you this
great gift. It'll be here in two weeks very Christmas, right,
which I've actually had to do when things didn't show up.
So yeah, I would encourage people to go to the
website at buffalowoolco dot com that's Buffalo willc dot com
and get their orders in before everything's gone. And and uh,

(53:05):
you have some really cool stuff on the website. There's recipes,
there's photos, there's there's a lot of cool block stuff
on there too. I'm looking at smoked bison rips with
blueberry ancho sauce.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
Come on, yep, yeah, that was stolen from Takabi in Denver.
They do an amazing job and came home and had
to recreate.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
It to what temperature should like a bison steak be cooked.

Speaker 4 (53:30):
As far as like it's.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Like like beef. You know, there's well done.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
It is. It is a lot, a fair bit leaner.
It doesn't have the intramuscular fat. So I usually cook
pretty rare and the rule of thumb that everyone always
says is low and slow. Now I do it blazing
hot and really quick, good good crust and you know,
rare all the way through.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
Yeah, I respect that.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
The uh, the this, this whole world is fascinating. I've
got a ton of different questions to ask you. What
happens when Ron and Teresa decide they don't do this anymore?
Who takes over this business? What's the next what's the
next link in the chain? What's the legacy here? Because

(54:21):
it's obviously it's not something everybody can or wants to do.
It's not easy, obviously, But I mean, is there a
future you know, in this in this industry?

Speaker 4 (54:33):
Our granddaughter has been working with us now for I
don't know a little over a year.

Speaker 6 (54:38):
Fund of both in college now.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
Yeah, so they're they've both been involved. I don't know
that that's necessarily the direction that they want to go
are Our real mission was to prove the concept and
show that it actually is a viable, usable, commercial textile,
and at some point somebody who has the passion, who
who has enough respect for the animal, enough respect for

(55:06):
the ranchers, will be probably interested in doing it real
Early on we just I think it was at our
first Dallas Safari Club show somebody walked up and said,
looked around the booth, had just bought his nine year
old daughter a sweater, looked around and goes, how much
for the company? And you know, I usually can spout

(55:31):
craft whatever. You know, that mouth is very seldom not moving.
But I was speech and I had no idea. And
we've had a few other inquirers and offers along the way,
but it's got to be somebody who's going to maintain
sort of what the belief is in making it here
and keeping it as as much bison as fiber as

(55:54):
possible and actually doing good for the industry. The industry
is to us as way more important than the product
or the company.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Mm hmm, very interesting, very interesting. I always like that.
I always like to analyze the legacy, you know, especially
especially it's it's not really I don't know what it's.
The term I would use, not really craft industry, but
it's not a huge industry.

Speaker 4 (56:17):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
They are very selective individuals such yourself that actually do
this and and my my hands thank you for it
every every hunting season, so to my feet. But uh,
it's it's just it's my hope that this that this
company will continue with the vision and the mission and
the dedication that you guys have put put forth in
it to to growing it and sustaining it because I

(56:39):
always like to see USA manufacturers anytime you can absolutely.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
Well, thank you for that. And from American workers they
you know, we we all appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Yeah, yeah, Ramon, you got anything else, man, other than
your credit card bill?

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Yeah? Now, I was just looking at that everything here.
I'm very excited. I mean, you've been around for a
while now, but I'm just finding out about the product
and it's exciting to hear how it is. I mean,
a grassroots, mom and pop, minimal employees just doing something
because they love it, and I think that's going to
reflect in the product when I get it in the

(57:19):
mill here in a couple of days.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
Well, thank you, but that goes back to your question
on the marketing. Obviously we're not doing it well enough
to be a nerd about it. Now again, we're having fun,
We're working with wonderful people, and we are truly blessed
every day that we wake up and get to do
what we do.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Yeah, well, guys, we thank you for your time. Teresa
and Ron Miskin of the Buffalo Wool Company. If you've
not ordered your products yet, you better go to buffalowoolco
dot com and get your stuff in the order queue
because it's going to go and it's going to fast,
and Christmas is right around the corner. So guys, thank
you guys so much for joining us today on the

(57:59):
Honey Met Podcast. Please be careful out there and all
your adventures. And Ramona and I want to see some uh,
we want to see some of these cool photos that
you're going to be doing with these with these pods
and whales and things. That's that's awesome. We can live
vicariously through through through Teresa's lens there.

Speaker 4 (58:15):
All right, thank you, thank you so much for having
us on this.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
You've bet thank you guys as well.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
And Honting Matters is a Houston Safari Club Foundation production.
Hosted by HSCF Executive Director Joe Bitar and Ramone Roebus,
Produced by Ramone Robust. Please rate, review, and subscribe wherever
you listen to podcasts. For questions or more information, email
us at info at we hunt, wee give dot org