The Buffalo Tail by Daniel T. "Bud" Kelly, Jr., is in part a sequel to The Buffalo Head, his father's history of the Kelly family's pioneer mercantile trading company, Gross Kelly & Co., which traces its origins to 1867. The Buffalo Tail recounts Bud's liquidation of the company in1954 in an era of modern mercantilism in which a pioneering trading company could no longer be competitive. The story moves on to describe the author's subsequent adventures as the proprietor of an insurance company in Santa Fe, recounting the rewards and hazards of insuring such clients as uranium mines, ranches, apple orchards, Santa Fe artists, galleries and the Santa Fe opera.

Kelly's memoir begins with the often humorous events of his early life as a cowboy on New Mexican ranches, regaling the reader with tales of his later prep school and college days at Harvard, and events during his tours of duty in World War II and the Korean conflict. The book moves on to relate stories of his marriage to Jeanne Wise and their family life in Santa Fe, and of his involvement in Santa Fe civic organizations and educational institutions. Kelly movingly chronicles the difficult loss of Jeanne in 1993 and goes on to tell of his subsequent adventures traveling in Europe and Asia and his activities back home in New Mexico, working on his beloved ranch in the Pecos. The Buffalo Tail is not only the story of one man's adventurous and fulfilling life; the book also recounts a piece of the civic and commercial history of the New Mexican West.