(buffalo moos) ♪ Oh give me a home ♪ ♪ Where the buffalo roam ♪ ♪ Where the deer and the antelope play ♪ ♪ Where seldom is heard a discouraging word ♪ ♪ And the skies are not cloudy all day ♪ - [Titus] No, this is not the vast plains of the Old West, but it is the confines of Indiana's largest buffalo ranch.

Deep in Indiana's hill country, one will find the Needmore Buffalo Farm.

It's Art and Jane's place just outside of Elizabeth, Indiana, 350 acres of rolling roaming countryside, reflections of life hundreds of years ago.

- And over the years, I worked construction work to support the farm, and I finally just got tired of raisin' corn and wheat and soybeans and cattle and hogs and bein' at the mercy of the market and not bein' able to make a decent livin' on the farm.

It's a shame, but it's just hard to make a livin' on the farm.

So I was tryin' to find an alternative crop, so Janie and I got to thinking around everything from ostriches to camels and finally hit on the buffalo.

And it seemed like the buffalo was gonna be the animal of the future.

- [Titus] The bison or buffalo has been extinct in Indiana for years now.

Today, Hoosier farmers are trying to bring them back.

The Stewarts have been at it for the past eight years, trying to raise and market the bison while at the same time reintroduce it to the Hoosier landscape.

- So Buffalo's just a different critter.

They're a wilder animal, they're curious, they're a smarter animal.

Like I say, their speed's 40 mile an hour.

They can cover a field just in nothin' flat and be on you before you know it, so you don't want ever turn your back on one.

You can't really trust 'em, especially in breedin' season, or when a cow's got a calf with her.

So, there's a lotta changes I had to make.

- [Titus] The Stewarts are serious about marketing buffaloes.

Besides inviting folks down to tour their mammoth buffalo farm, they have also set up an antique shop, and in it, you'll find just about anything buffalo.

- We sell the buffalo bones, the skulls, the hides.

Art does a whole lot of arts and crafts with the bones, and I do some spinning of the buffalo wool.

His necklaces, his little buffalo necklaces are real popular, and the skulls, the big skulls like these back here, they're extremely popular.

Anything that comes from the buffalo, those are our biggest sellers, and the meat is our main livelihood because of the low cholesterol, low fat.

- [Titus] Buffalo meat is touted here.

People come from miles around just to savor its benefits.

- Thank you.

- [Titus] Heck, it's nothin' for Jane to encourage potential customers by whipping up a quick buffalo burger or two.

(burgers sizzle on grill) Today, well, it's special for me.

I'll get my first taste of bison.

Hmm, it's pretty good.

- Pretty good?

- [Titus] It really is.

- [Customer] It's good, ain't it?

- [Titus] Art and Jane Stewart are unlikely preservationists, but in their quest to reintroduce buffaloes to Southern Indiana, they have become just that.

- But what we're tryin' to do is promote the buffaloes, make sure that everybody's sellin' a good product, that we can preserve the animal, and so that our grandkids can have buffalo 'cause they are quite a magnificent animal.

They're just a different animal, so we're trying to preserve a little history as we go also.

- [Titus] And in their subtle Hoosier way, Art and Jane have also become educators.

- Right now, we've got a little buffalo, that we call a pet buffalo, even though there isn't such a thing as a pet buffalo.

But we're tryin' to make a pet out of him or an animal that we can take to the school and show the school kids and have in parades and different things like that.

Come on, you can get out there.

- Come on.

- [Titus] This spring, the Stewarts plan to expand their antique shop, putting in a larger dining room.

They also plan to expand the herd.

They're hopeful that Hoosiers will come down and have some vittles, take a tour of the ranch, and experience what life must have been like around these parts hundreds of years ago.

♪ And the skies are not cloudy all day ♪ (upbeat folk style music)