Tourists Flock to Massachusetts Bison Farm

By ADAM GORLICK
The Associated Press

HADLEY, Mass. (Aug. 3, 2001) - Maybe it was the afternoon heat or the flies buzzing around him, but El Duque wasn't in the mood for visitors.

With a snort, the 1,800-pound bison hoisted himself off the ground, shook a cloud of dust from his shaggy mane and lumbered away from the people stopping on Route 9 to see where the buffalo roam in western Massachusetts.

Welcome to the Long Hollow Bison Farm, the Ciaglo brothers' attempt to save their family land by offering a tourist stop instead of crops.

"This isn't great land for growing crops, and beef or dairy cows are a dead end because you have to spend so much time and money tending to them," said Paul Ciaglo, 34, who runs the farm with his brother, Fred, 36. "All you really need to raise buffalo is grass, and we've got plenty of that here. Other than feeding them, they like to be left alone."

The farm features 36 buffalo, a small roadside lunch grill and a gift shop that offers frozen packages of bison burgers and steaks for up to $20 a pound.

The bison's occasional grumpiness hasn't kept away the crowds that have been stopping by since the first four animals arrived in 1997.

"You see them in the movies, but they're not as beautiful as they are right here," said Beverly Czernich, a home decorator from Erving. "It's a little strange to see them in Hadley, though."

The Ciaglo farm almost went to Wal-Mart in the mid-1990s when the discount retail giant wanted to build a store on the family's unused 60 acres. Instead, the brothers persuaded their parents to sell them the farm purchased in 1910 by their great-grandfather, a Polish immigrant.

"We didn't want to see our land get developed like that," Fred Ciaglo said. "We wanted to keep this as open space."

Fred left his job as a public school teacher to take care of the farm's day-to-day operations. Paul, a former pitcher for the Montreal Expos, kept working in the software industry to help pay the bills.

The Long Hollow Bison Farm seems out of place with the development of shopping areas and fast-food restaurants just down Route 9. After all, bison usually conjure images of wide, open spaces and the Great Plains.

But the animals aren't all that unique to the Northeast, which is home to about 100 bison farms.

"The main attraction to raising buffalo is that they produce a lean meat," said Hugh Forbes, chairman of the Eastern Bison Association. "But the animals are also a huge fascination for people. Folks just like to stop by and look at them."

Some say buffalo tastes just like beef, if not a bit sweeter. And with 3 grams of fat per 3.5-ounce portion, buffalo meat has become popular with health-conscious red meat eaters, translating into $50 million worth of sales last year.

"We're not in this business to be a major meat producer," Paul Ciaglo said. "We're in it to keep the family farm going."

Along with selling buffalo meat in frozen packages and hot off their grill, the brothers also rent their land for summer music festivals. In the fall, they offer hay rides.

"Whatever we do with this land, we want to have it fit perfectly," Fred Ciaglo said. "This is like our little piece of the West right here on Route 9 and we don't want to ruin it."