WICHITA, Kan. - The convergence of high-protein diets and the demand for healthier foods is making it a good time to be a bison producer.

The commercial bison slaughter last year was a record 34,444 animals, according to Department of Agriculture figures. Though that remains tiny compared to the cattle slaughter of 35.7 million animals last year, it's up 36 percent.

Buffalo, a red meat alternative, has less fat and fewer calories than beef. Bison are also marketed as being raised naturally, without growth hormones or antibiotics.

"I happen to be a meat lover. We tried vegetarian diets, but I have to have meat," said David Patterson, a Georgia resident who has been buying buffalo meat for three years. He buys a quarter of a bison at a time from a Kansas buffalo farm.

Patterson said he and his wife were searching for healthier foods when they tried bison meat, and have been hooked since finding out that bison meat was high in protein, low in fat and high in heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids.

Also helping bison sales were record high beef prices, which suddenly made bison meat seem not quite so expensive, said Richard Duff, who raises about 450 bison near Scott City.

Linda Hubalek, a bison producer in Lindsborg, Kan., said she was selling bison burger for $3.99 a pound and her top steaks were going for $19.99 a pound. At the grocery store not far away, beef prices were around $1.59 to $1.99 a pound, and the top cut, a filet, was selling for $13.99 a pound.

Demand for bison meat is on track for another record-breaking year as more consumers turn to bison as an alternative to beef in the wake of the discovery late last year of mad cow disease in a U.S. dairy cow, Carter said.

Starting in June, consumers can look for a new USDA label on bison products assuring them the animal was fed and raised naturally. The system will use an audit trail of paperwork and animal identification.

Hubalek and her husband, Verne, own Smoky Hill Bison Co. They sell meat from grass-fed buffalo direct from their farm to homes across the nation and also operate a visitors center at the ranch.

The Hubaleks' customers think Kansas "is a natural place to be finding buffalo meat. Kansas is 'where the buffalo roam' - the song helps us out."

Actually, Montana is the nation's top buffalo producing state with 38,000 head. Estimates put the commercial U.S. buffalo herd at 270,000 animals, Carter said.