<p>Tony Knighton is fulfilling his dream: to raise his own buffalo.</p><p>In just a few months, Knighton has built a 320-acre farm on the Chattahoochee River in Hilton that houses 21 buffalo, 62 cows, 11 horses, three goats and a donkey.</p><p>"It's for fun, but the cost of this hobby is huge," said Knighton's former brother-in-law, Kevin "KC" Coleman, who helped inspire him to raise buffalo.</p><p>Knighton, 51, and Coleman, 42, got the idea during a late-night conversation over a couple of beers about a year ago.</p><p>"I was going through a hard time," Knighton said. "Kevin said, 'If you could do anything with your life, what would you do?'"</p><p>Coleman remembers well what Knighton said next.</p><p>"Tony said he wanted to raise buffalo. I said, 'Let's do it.'"</p><p>Since then, they've started accumulating their buffalo at their River Oaks Ranch _ their first two cows came from Roswell, then two more were found in Stone Mountain. The second pair had an illness similar to pink eye, but the veterinarians didn't want to work on them, perhaps because they can be dangerous.</p><p>"You want to walk slow around them," Coleman said. "No fast, abrupt movements."</p><p>Knighton said he's been butted and bruised by the animals, which can run faster than horses, but he hasn't suffered serious injury.</p><p>"Buffalo will bruise you on the outside, but a woman will hurt you on the inside," he said.</p><p>The herd had its first birth June 11. Reagon could be the first calf born in Early County in about a hundred years.</p><p>The buffalo project may do well because interest in buffalo meet is rising, said Dave Carter, executive director for the National Bison Association. There are now about 232,000 animals in private herds in all 50 states.</p><p>"We are definitely seeing an upsurge in producers raising bison," Carter said. "We are seeing demand for the meat is really taking off. That is a much stronger longer-term signal for our business."</p><p>Carter said buffalo is lower in fat and calories than beef or chicken, and it's higher in iron and certain B vitamins.</p><p>"Folks still have the misconception it might be tough or gamy. Other people think bison are an endangered species," Carter said.</p><p>River Oaks Ranch has been selling meet and other buffalo products since February as far away as Pennsylvania and Maine. Most sales have been through the Internet.</p><p>Coleman said he hopes to build the herd to 100 head and have 12 more births of calves by fall.</p><p>"You would not believe how fun it is, to ride horses amongst the cows and buffalo," Knighton said.</p>
