Bison Production Booming

Bison Production Booming

Bison Production Booming. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. It's always good to have a product that people just can't seem to get enough of except when it really is hard to get. A few years ago the Martin's discovered bison meat. Originally as a novelty but we quickly discovered that we really liked it but also found it was pretty hard to come by. Dave Carter, Executive Director of the National Bison Association says that they are really working hard to build on the bison industry and while it will never replace beef there is a growing demand. CARTER: I think we will always be a niche. We never want to see ourselves as another beef or pork. I like to that beef does the best job in the world of being beef and they have their place in the market. We just always see that bison will have a special place. It'll be a niche. People appreciate the value, we're a high quality protein, the taste, the nutritional profile, the fact that we are a natural animal that's raised without the hormones and the antibiotics. Those are things we said very clearly last week. Last week the bison industry released a statement that Carter says was meant to assure the marketplace that it does take time to produce and they will not cut corners. CARTER: We're not going to cut corners; we're not going to start compromising the integrity of the animal just to meet the current demands so we're asking everybody to just be patient with us while we build the herds. We feel very good about what's driving our market. The growth in bison demand is being driven by the customers and we watch that demand continue to climb even as we've gone through a recession. As with beef, Carter says they are seeing a bit of a move to different cuts of bison meat. CARTER: We've seen perhaps a little more demand for the roast and the bison burgers and maybe a little softer for the tenderloins but that tells me that people enjoy bison and they're going to continue to eat it even if they can't purchase the higher priced cuts so we think that that's a very good indicator about the long term strength of our business. We just want to continue to build this business based upon a good strong connection with the customers out there who are going into the grocery stores or the restaurants looking for a good quality product. Ranchers looking to get into the bison business are being urged to take the leap. Carter says the National Bison Association has been reaching out to producers who are weary of being a part of commodity agriculture. They are conducting workshops across the country on bison production, producing new materials to assist ranchers in making a transition, reaching out to lenders to finance bison operations, and even working with groups like the National FFA to foster a new generation of bison producers. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
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