04/02/08 Building on Bison

Building on Bison. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. It is hard to believe that once upon a time the earth rumbled and the prairies looked like an ocean of dark brown fur as massive herds of bison roamed the landscape. In the late 1800's and early 1900's those numbers were in down to a very small handful. The American bison was all but extinct. Now thanks to the efforts of ag producers across the country the bison is enjoying a welcome return and Dave Carter with the National Bison Association says the last couple of years have seen an upturn. CARTER: I think overall right now there is a great feeling of optimism in the bison business. Our industry went through some tough times about 5 or 6 years ago but in the last 3 to 4 years we've really caught on fire and are growing very steadily and what's very encouraging Greg is it's being driven by consumer demand. A lot of the demand is being fueled by consumers discovering bison for the first time. CARTER: The great thing today is that folks all around the country in cities and small towns alike have discovered the great taste of bison and the nutritional benefits and the fact that it is a locally produced sustainable food and so we have seen the demand really skyrocket and that's creating the incentive for some folks to build their herds and get some more product into the marketplace. I remember quite a number of years back going to see one of the only remaining bison in Kansas. Where thousands had roamed, there was now this one small animal. Early on it was a lot more about preservation as opposed to a food source. CARTER: To certain extent it still is. In fact one of our lines is "The best way to save a bison is to eat it." When you take a look today Greg, there are about 270-thousand bison here in the United States, about 500-thousand in North America which is really a remarkable restoration from the fact that there were fewer than a thousand left alive at the end of the 1800's. Carter says there are some misconceptions regarding bison. CARTER: Well there's two of them. We still run into the misconception that people think this is an endangered species and so we have to talk to them about the fact that we are up to 270-thousand and the more bison meat we sell the more bison there are going to be out in the countryside. The second big misconception is that bison is going to be tough and gamey. The way we've addressed that is to just put a sample on a toothpick and hand it to somebody and tell them to take a taste. I personally really like a good barbequed bison steak or burger. Tomorrow, Dave Carter talks more about the upswing in the market and how you could get involved. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.