Buffalo Wool Co Updates

The latest news from Ron & T of The Buffalo Wool Co. at RATH Ranch. Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more

Happy Saturday Friends!

We made it to the weekend, and gonna take that as a Win!

Hope your week was smooth sailing... (we didn't get to go sailing this week, there was a lot of work that needed doing) Things here are good, we are getting caught back up, and having our family Mother's Day Celebration here today.

Have some good news on the production front. Crescent Spinning Mill has us queued up to spin 5 yarns in the new few months. The new sock mill, Nester Hosiery, is gonna have more B.o.s.s, Trekkers, Yellowstones, and our new "Lounge Sock" (knee high version of the sleep socks, so many of you have asked for these) ready here by the end of this month...Kenai and Pro-Crew by mid-July, The Knitting Mill delivered 700 pairs of Extreme and Advantage gloves yesterday. AND, Kim has come up with a really sweet dish soap kit, and it's great, we have been using it here for a couple weeks. Definitely like less chemicals on our dishes, she also has a new pet soap, for fleas and ticks, that will be released very soon.

So, taking those all as another couple W's

This year we had a smaller harvest than usual, but we will get as much made as possible, do have a feeling that we will sell out faster than November/December as demand for things is truly at an all time high... so, I do recommend grabbing stuff when we get it in stock if you want it.

For all the new friends reading our weekly missive for the first time, (we picked up a big bunch this week somehow) we try not to make this just a Buffalo Wool Co commercial, but try and share some interesting stuff from the bison industry and friends making good stuff here in the U.S. I hope you enjoy what we have today. It's not very long...

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Ron, T, Paula, Stacy, Piggy Wrangler and the rest of the crew here at the BWC.

Meme of the week

At Buffalo Wool Co, we know the real MVPs are the moms.The ones who keep the whole world moving while somehow making it look effortless.

The early risers, the huggers, the fixers, the ones who remember every birthday, every favorite meal, and every little thing that makes their people feel loved.Today (and every day), we just want to say thank you.

Thank you for your endless strength, your quiet wisdom, and the love that wraps around your families. We’re proud to make products that help keep those amazing moms warm, cozy, and comfortable—because the women who take care of everyone deserve to be taken care of too.

Happy Mother’s Day to every mom out there.

We appreciate you more than you’ll ever know.With gratitude,

The Buffalo Wool Co Family

Ted Turner: Champion of the American Bison

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Ted Turner. We express our deepest sympathy to his family, friends, and the team supporting his ongoing work. Ted and family have been long time friends, and truly wonderful people, who have supported our work from the beginning.

Ted Turner, the media visionary who founded CNN, has left an equally profound mark as one of the greatest champions of American bison conservation and the modern bison industry. Inspired as a boy by stories of the species’ near-extinction—plunging from tens of millions to fewer than 1,000 animals in the late 19th century—Turner bought his first bison in 1976, launching a decades-long mission to restore the iconic animal to its native landscapes.Today, Turner Enterprises manages the world’s largest private bison herd—approximately 45,000 head—across more than two million acres of ranchland in states including Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Kansas.

On properties like the historic Flying D Ranch (purchased in the late 1980s) and Vermejo Park Ranch (acquired in 1996), he replaced overgrazed cattle operations with bison, allowing native grasslands to regenerate. As a keystone species, bison naturally aerate soil, promote plant diversity, and support wildlife through their grazing patterns—an approach central to Turner’s model of regenerative agriculture and large-scale conservation. Turner went further to safeguard genetics. Vermejo’s Castle Rock herd, a legacy group dating to the 1920s, represents rare pure lines free of cattle DNA. Through a pioneering partnership with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, he quarantined Yellowstone bison and retained key offspring, securing one of the only private herds of genetically vital Yellowstone stock. Equally transformative was Turner’s business vision. He launched the Ted’s Montana Grill restaurant chain, which features bison burgers and steaks, creating steady demand that helped turn bison ranching from a niche hobby into a viable industry.

By commercializing bison meat—leaner, higher in protein, and more sustainable than beef—he encouraged other ranchers to join in, dramatically broadening the national gene pool and strengthening the species’ long-term health. Inducted into the National Bison Association Hall of Fame in 2007, Turner proved that private enterprise and conservation can thrive together. His ranches blend profitable bison operations with ecotourism, hunting, and native species recovery, all while protecting vast open spaces for future generations. Through the Turner Endangered Species Fund and sustainable land stewardship, he didn’t just save bison—he helped revive an entire American icon and the industry built around it.

Bison Baby Boom at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center: More Buffalo Moms

Calving season is officially underway at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, where staff are on full “stork watch” for this year’s wood bison babies—they could arrive at any moment, probably while we’re all refreshing the live cams like anxious grandparents.We’ve been following this program from the very beginning, back when the first wood bison lumbered onto the property at the AWCC in 2008. These are some great people who have built a pretty amazing place, we stop by and say hi every time we go up there. The place keeps growing and getting better and better.

Lily Grbavach,their director of education, calls it conservation at its coolest: “The wood bison is a great example of conservation in action in North America and Alaska specifically.” She’s basically vibrating with excitement: “I am so excited to see the little babies.”And who can blame her? as she put it very well, “Every baby that is born at AWCC is truly something to celebrate. The calves that are born here are contributing to conservation and will be eligible to be reintroduced into the wild and join one of the wild herds in Alaska.”

The AWCC breeds these magnificent (and surprisingly bouncy) wood bison, and every single calf born here is a cause for celebration. “Every baby that is born at AWCC is truly something to celebrate,” they remind us. “The calves that are born here are contributing to conservation and will be eligible to be reintroduced into the wild and join one of the wild herds in Alaska.” Basically, each fuzzy little newcomer is helping repopulate the state—one adorable hoof stamp at a time.Since those pioneering arrivals in 2008, Alaska has kept the reintroduction train rolling every other year. Sarah Howard, executive director of the center, says it’s an honor they don’t take lightly: “Being a host facility for wood bison to continue breeding and having animals that can continue to go out into the wild is something that is a privilege, and we feel very honored to do that here at the AWCC.

”If you’re planning a trip up north, June and July are prime time to catch the newbies out in the fields—tiny tails wagging, learning how to be proper wild bison while the rest of us cheer from the sidelines.

From the Herd Bull, Dad...

We never intended to become a jewelry store, but there are so many beautiful bison pieces ... and native pieces ... and natural turquoise and stone sets that it just happened. We're glad it did!

Our jewelry selection sold so well in the store, but times change and it is time a lot of these gems get price reduced until you just cannot stand it. Again, it only hurts to look if its too late and someone else grabbed the deal.

If .... you are interested in some additional jewelry "Bargains"

Jewelry Bargains at Herdwear.net

Gloves are BACK IN STOCK!!!! for those people who have been waiting patiently. (still waiting for Medium Extreme gloves)