Bison Media Gaffe

Bison Media Gaffe. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

The National Bison Association this week expressed anger at untrue statements on two recent national media outlets concerning the crossbreeding of bison and cattle. Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association.

CARTER: The whole idea of bison interbreeding with cattle is a real sensitive one with a lot of private producers because we have spent so much time developing the connection with our customers based upon the quality of the animals and integrity of the species and people are buying bison in the store today because they’ve got our message that the more you eat bison, the more you’re helping to build the herds and restore these animals across the landscapes.

A report aired last week on Fox news where journalist Dan Springer made the statement that “nearly all of the buffalo are bred with cattle and raised as livestock for their meat." A similar statement was made recently on NBC News.

CARTER: In relation to a story in terms of the release of Yellowstone bison being restored to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, which we think is a great thing, they made the comment that these are genetically pure bison - there are hundreds of thousands of bison out there in commercial herds but they’re all bred with cattle and raised for meat. There’s nothing further from the truth.

Carter says it’s against their organizations Code of Ethics to inter-breed and anyone caught doing so is expelled from the group. But let’s clarify one thing.

CARTER: It is possible to crossbreed the two and in fact one of the reasons that this is so complicated is that 120 years ago these animals were standing on the edge of extinction. It’s commonly agreed there were less than 1000 animals left alive. Most people say it was between 5 and 700. And there were really 5 ranchers at that played the important role of going out and gathering up some of the remnants of the herds out on the prairies and saving them from extinction.

Crossbreeding was introduced but there were problems.

CARTER: What they found very quickly is that when you cross them you end up first of all with your first generation bull is sterile and your females have calving problems and high mortality rates and with their calves and so they quit doing it. But in that process there were some cattle genetics introduced into some bison. But in terms of these animals today we adamantly believe it’s best to let buffalo be buffalo

For more information on bison and bison meat visit the website bisoncentral.com.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.