Many people get TIME magazine or The Atlantic, but I get Bison World Magazine. It’s a great way to keep up with the American Bison Industry and the Bison Ranchers we know. As I flipped through the magazine I was pleasantly surprised (and stunned) to find that our leather goods workshop, the Buffalo Billfold Company, was the featured on a two page spread! We knew an article might be on the horizon, but didn’t realize it would be so expansive!
National Bison Association
For the past quarter century we have been members of the National Bison Association. It is an organization of ranchers and stock producers that have a goal of promoting the American Bison (Bison Bison). It has been gratifying to watch this organization grow and become a meaningful component of the healthy food industry. The National Bison Association have also promoted proper and sustainable range management throughout North America.
Bison Ranchers Tour the Buffalo Billfold Company
The Minnesota Bison Association recently met for their annual meeting in my community. During this time one of the requested activities was to tour the Buffalo Billfold Company leather workshop. We have much in common with these ranchers in that we mutually benefit from the American Bison. We exist as a small business/manufacturer because of these dedicated Bison Ranchers.
We had a much larger response than we had anticipated and we had to schedule multiple tours to safely fit everyone into the leather workshop. Many of the attendees came from much farther distances than Minnesota, including Colorado, Indiana, Montana, Wyoming just to name a few. Many of the ranchers own vast acreages of short grass prairie on the western plains and the American Bison are a perfect fit.
As I was hosting the tours I realized that I was one of the few in the room that didn’t have 20 or 30,000 acres of land! We were excited to share with them though that we now have our own, very modest, Dakota Sweet Grass Bison Ranch!
We talked about Buffalo leather durability, leather grades, and why we made the switch to Buffalo leather. We had fun showing off different tannings of buffalo leather and what their “brands” look like after it has been tanned into dark chocolate, natural finished buffalo leather, leather that is leveled to the appropriate weight to make a soft, supple, durable wallet.
Buffalo Leather Goods
The National Bison Association has been generous in helping us promote our leather goods within their industry. They are thoughtful and mindful of all the components that create our healthy Bison industry.
My hat goes off to these fine folks and to those working with Bison World Magazine!
Bill Keitel
