PUTNAM – From a chance sighting during a trip to Sturgis, S.D., Ron Gallo has built up a nice little business, and recently he’s decided to branch out a bit. Drivers have likely seen R&M ranch on Route 29 south of Putnam, since it’s difficult to miss seeing buffalo in Central Illinois. If you want to see what buffalo meat tastes like, you might want to stop by, since Gallo is opening up a lunchstand for you to give it a try.

“I’ve done cook-outs, I was at Utica’s Burgoo Festival and Springfield’s Hundred Car Pile-up,” Gallo said. “We decided to open up the wagon and serve lunch everyday from 11 to 2 and open on the weekends, and I’ll sell everything pertaining to buffalo. I’m going to call it ‘Buffalo Ron’s Bison Grill.’ Nothing but buffalo.”

The menu so far includes buffalo burgers and hot dogs made from buffalo meat, but plans to expand the menu are already in place.

“I’m going to have buffalo chili, buffalo brats, buffalo tacos,” Gallo said. “I’m going to do a special. I’ll take a roast, slice it real thin and make Italian buffalo.”

Gallo’s journey into buffalo ranching and restaurants started in 1999 on his annual trip to Sturgis for the annual motorcycle rally.

“We went to Sturgis in ‘99, and I saw the buffalo roaming wild in Custer State Park,” said Gallo. “I already had the property – seven acres – and I said ‘I want to have a couple on my property.’”

Gallo researched buffalo for years and on Halloween 2005, he started building R&M Ranch. In 2006, he purchased his first buffalo, five yearlings.

“My mother bought one, and my father had just passed away; so she called him Big Mike. That was my dad’s name. He’s the breeding bull,” he said.

Gallo later bought eight bred females which produced another eight babies. Since then, every buffalo he’s had has been born and raised at his ranch. His current stock is around 45 head of buffalo.

“They’ve always been here, so I know what they get. There’s no hormones, no steroids, no fertilizer,” Gallo said. “These are grain-fed. They’ve never been bred with beef. They’re 100 percent buffalo.”

Gallo first started selling buffalo meat in 2009 and will continue to do so as he starts his new venue. Because of the cost of raising buffalo and scarcity, buffalo meat is a bit expensive; a pound of ground buffalo runs about $9. But Gallo said the health benefits over regular beef are pretty hefty.

Buffalo meat is leaner than regular beef which gives it a slightly heavier texture. A 3.5-ounce serving has 143 calories, compared to 283 in choice beef and 201 in select beef. It also has more iron and B-12 vitamins than beef, although other nutrients are about the same. The amount of fat in a serving is 2.42 grams, compared to 8.09 for select beef and 18.54 for choice beef.

Gallo is inspected annually to raise and sell buffalo meat, and he has it processed at a local locker to meet USDA standards. While the demand is growing for buffalo meat, Gallo doesn’t plan on expanding too much.

“I don’t want to get real, real big. I sell some to a few restaurants, but I want to stay smaller, so I can control the quality,” Gallo said. “It’s something so my daughter and granddaughter can have a business to fall back on down the road.”