Sunday, February 29, 1976
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
FEATUR
ES
Beefalo to make homes on your range
By JAY LEVIN their owners Howard and Shar- He hasn't gained a pound or
on Bloch and Dr. Henry Ferstl lost one yet.
ABOUT 100 YEARS ago, Wil - constitute American Beefalo
ham Cody earned the nick- Breeders, Inc. We have Charolais, Herefords
name "Buffalo Bill" for his and Angus, here, he boasted.
keen eye, his powerful rifle, Last week, Ms. Bloch treated "We have all breeds."
and an uncanny ability to pro- several guests to a meal of beef-
vide fresh meat for the men aloburgers, which have become PAUMAN, LOWE and his wife
working on the railroad. Buffa- a staple on the family's table. Judy are responsible for
lo became a prime foodstuff, "The way I'm going to prepare feeding the beefalo bulls, steers
along with beans and fatback. it," she said, sculpting enough and heifers twice daily, conduct-
It's been said that wild buffalo lean red meat for three patties, ing the once-a-month weigh-ins
steaks taste gamey x and are "is by not adding any salt or and seeing to the overall care
pretty damn stringy. But the pepper . . . that way you can of the barn and farm. The own-
elegant folks back East consid- really taste the meat." She slid ers keep around two honest-to-
ered the tongues a delicacy. the burgers into a heavy gray goodness buffalos for promo-
pan. Within minutes, they began tional purposes, and maintain
Of course, the thundering buf- to sizzle and an appetizing aro- several horses and a crop of
falo herds have gone the way ma filled the kitchen. corn and oats.
of gunfights in front of the sa-
loon, cattle drives to Abilene,
and Wyatt Earp. The mighty
beasts are, however, making a
comeback.
Sort of.
Today, a few cattle breeders
have begun raising beefalo -
a careful genetic cross between
the buffalo and the cow. The
buffalo lends bulk, stamina, andf
docility. The cow contributes
good, full flavor. And surprising-F
ly, the final product tastes bet-
ter than ground round.
ONCE BEEFALOS are raised
on a commercial scale, ev-
ery cut - from burger to rolled
rib - will be considerably
cheaper than a comparable
hunk of cow., But that day is
probably about a decade off.
"You cook it just like you
would regular beef," Ms. Bloch
said, as she turned the meat.
"But because it has very little
fat, it cooks 30 to SO per cent
quicker than regular meat."
Finally, the burgers were on the
table. The taste was rich and
flavorful but retained the deli-
cate quality of high-grade beef.
And unlike confronting horse-
flesh, no one around the table
expressed any compunction
about digging in.
"WTE THINK in ten years'
that's all there's going to
be - beefalo," says Ferstl,
ABB's executive director. "It's
a matter of survival."
The beefalo breed was actual-
ly originated four years ago by
a California rancher who bred
one bull and sold it for $2.5S
million. That beefalo bull paid'
for itself within three yearst
through semen sales alone. ABB
But beefalo is their business.
ABB does not slaughter beefa-
lo on the premises and its in-
come is derived frrom the sale
of their critters for breeding
purposes. ABB's west-coast se-
men sells for $20 per small sam-
ple, enough to inseminate one
heifer.
"We order it whenever we
need it," said Ferstl. The beef-
alo bull semen, packed in li-
quid nitrogen at a frosty 320
degrees below zero, is distribut-
ed all around the country.
Ferstl, a short man with a
tan, lined face who did agricul-
tural research at Michigan
State, believes the beefalo's big-
gest boon is a resiliency spring-
ing from it's bison heritage.
"Remember when 50,000 cattle
froze to death in North Dakota
three years ago?," he asked.
"Well,.there were some buffalo
out there and they took it."
TTE ADDED that feeding these
An incipient herd of 28 beef-
alo roams an 85-acre farm
nestled in the gently rolling hills
just outside little Mayville,
Mich. The animals - along with
f
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Daily Photo by PAULINE LUBENS
Cryonics: Some people choose
deep freeze over the coffin
bought its first beefalo last No- hardy, friendly animals isa
vember. breeze. "With the millions of
"They're just so tame, they're bushels of oats you put in cat-
I easy to work with," said tle. you don't need all that for
farmhand Mark Lowe, herding beefalo," he said. "A little'
a few head of beefalo out of the grass and hay is all that's need-
fragrant red barn - quiet ex- ed to get a good choice of car-
Scepj for a moo or two. In one cass."
fenced-off pen, Jim Bauman In the long~run. the beefai-
recently from California yielded
450 lbs. of "table-ready meat,"
and only cost $700. She lauds
beefalo meat as nutritious -
with 22 per cent protein, com-
pared to 12 per cent in ordinary
beef. The additional protein
supply, she adds, fills the diner
up better than beef.
However, beefalo meat today
remainsda precious and rare
commodity, and Ms. Bloch pre-
dicts it won't be available at
the locl supermarket for an-
other eight to ten years.
"You're not gonna get this
on the market," explained
Ferstl, "until you breed ten
million heads. You don't slaugh-
ter heifers, now. If we slaugh-
tered all the beefalo we have
for meat, it would last two
hours on the market."
la 1, evin is a Daily night
editor and staff writer.
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Dailv Photo by PAULINE LUBENS
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(Continued from Page 3)
who will their bodies to be froz-
en have nothing to lose, is not
enough to satisfy the expense,
false hopes, and disregard for
scientific direction that accom-
pany such a philosophy."
Cryonics advocates respond
by arguing that no one actually
knows what chances for life
the people who are now frozen
have. "But we do know," says
Art Quaife, president of Trans
Time, "that those people who
simply die and be done with it
have no chance at all." Quaife
argues that experimental suc-
cesses with frozen organs
(kidneys, the cornea of the
eye), semen, and one test with
a cat's brain indicates that
similar techniques with human
bodies will eventually be per-
fected.
"IF WE HAD a crash pro-
gram, it is possible that
the problems could very likely
be solved in 10-15 years; how-
ever, even if the current level
of funding continues, it should
take about 40 or 50 years."
Quaife also points out that since
the cryonauts would be main-
tained in the same condition for
that entire time period, it is'
quite possible that those pa-
tients will live again.
Ettinger questions a number
of commonly - held assump-
tions about death. He differen-
tiates between clinical death -
usually interpreted as the ces-
sation of heart and lung activ-
ity - and true biological death,
in which irreversible cellular
deterioration takes place. The
cryonics movement has accept-
ed a definition of death which
says that "death is the state
from which resuscitation of the
body as a whole is impossible
by currently known means."
Despite the debate in scien-
tific circles over the effective-
ness of cryogenic techniques,
Ettinger explains that most of
the arguments against freezing
people come from members of
the public or physicians who
"don't know much about cryo-
biology . . . I would say that
much opposition stems from
deep-rooted psychological fac-
tors. Most people have an ex-
traordinary amount of inertia-
they're used to having physi-
cians handle their problems;
they're not used to taking hero-
ic measures on their own . . .
It seems as though people
was wrestling with a massive
would rather die than bear re- happen to their bank accounts? black and white beefalo bull
sponsibility for their decisions." Or what would happen if some- just after weigh in.
one returned at a future date "Doncha get red with me,
j'TTINGER explains that even and married their great-great Doncha get red with
though many people scoff at grandson or daughter? dotogte11-mntho
the Cryogenics Society, he finds drawled to the 11-month old
that "very few people express However, Ettinger's son, Da- 1175-pounder. "Just knocked
strong disapproval." vid, a University Law School I him out of the scale," said Jim.
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John Erfurt, a University re-
search scientist for the Institute
of Labor and Industrial Rela-
tions and a Cryonics Society'
member, says that as long as
the society maintains a "low
profile" there will be little cri-
ticism, but "if cryogenics ever
become more attractive . . . a
lot of people would be upset,j
like fineral directors, medical
practitioners, and religious in-
stitutions."
Nevertheless, Ettinger says
that he feels that the idea of
postponing death will eventually
be accepted by most of the pub-
student, says that the legal ob-
stacles will be easily overcome.
"The law is not an arcade; the
law was made to serve people's!
needs," he says.
DAVID ETTINGER predicts
that, in one case, the law
may allow cryonicists to per-
form an operation that would;
presently be considered homi-
cide: "It would be ideal to
freeze people before they die,;
but nobody wants to try the
experiment . . . Still, one judge
we consulted seemed to think
that no one would prosecute in
such a case" if the person was
terminally ill .
A 19th century New Jersey;
law that prohibits sexual
intercourse between unmarried
people is still enforced when
women seek welfare payments
for illegitimate children.
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lo's resistence to cold and dis-
ease and its economical eating
habits will spell decreased
meat costs - when there's
enough beefalo to go around.
According to Ms. Bloch, the
carcass her husband purchased!
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lie. He also states that religious u A - iiv
person whobel the im- LII jL g1 Robert Ettinger notes that
persons who believe in the im- even though cryonics societies NOVA CHARTER CORP.
mortrlity of the soul (and not are becoming somewhat more ITHACA, NEW YORK 1429 HILL ST.
the body) can be reconciled .p_____________
wtheron) "n oe recased socially acceptable and that
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and a bishop" he explains. ' are joining more ofte than ever i1 TUESIAL IARCI 2:
before, he's no longer as involv-
Ettinger contends that many ed in public relations and pro- 1E R A ID 4 E I
physicians and scientists who selytizing for the group as he
are publicly silent about freez- was in the late sixties. Physicist, Space Scientist
ing people are actually "closet' According to Erfurt, "we've - SPEAKING ON:
crvocists . . . Most people in I come to the conclusion that in "SPACE COLONIZATION AND
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positions, religious and non-re -,_____<) )~sC O c:t (> s
ligious backgrounds, and differ- Erfurt says that cryonics
ing personality types. "I have hasn't become popular because
also observed that we have of a widespread public attitude!tj
more risk-takers than you'd ex- about dying: "Most people per-
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