The buffalo roam at the National Western Stock Show

The winner was a two-year-old unnamed bull from the Silver Creek Bison Ranch in Alberta, Canada, purchased for about $8,000 by Steve Wilson of the Kentucky Bison Company near Louisville, Kentucky. "He'll be enjoying warmer weather where he's headed," National Bison Association director Dave Carter says of the bull, and his future life of leisure as well, since the big buffalo will be spending a lot of time with the ladies, helping to build the herd. Wilson also owns the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, which was just selected as the best hotel in the United States by Condé Nast Traveler magazine. And the hotel's restaurant, Proof on Main, serves plenty of bison steaks, Carter says. Although the $8,000 price tag was well up from last year's winning $5,750 buffalo, it was nothing compared to the $101,000 that Kentucky buffalo rancher Robert Allen paid for an animal named Chief Joseph in 1998...read more