All Natural Bison
All Natural Bison. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
We have talked a number of times to Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association but last week I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Dave face-to-dace at the National Farm Broadcasters meeting and we started talking about the recent celebration of the first National Bison Day.
CARTER: We had a lot of fun on National Bison Day. Hurricane Sandy caused a few problems with some of the events on the East coast but I said, “Yeah, it’s only fitting.” These animals have weathered storms for tens of thousands of years so what’s one little hurricane going to do to know things off stride. You know it was a great thing that the private producers through the National Bison Association and the tribal folks through the International Tribal Buffalo Council and the conservation folks through the Wildlife Conservation Society really coming together to say you know we all have different approaches to it but we all love bison so lets get together and have a National Bison Day every year.
The purpose is to really get people to understand more about a magnificent animal. National Bison Day will be celebrated every year on the first Thursday of November.
CARTER: Gosh, coincidentally that’s sort of the beginning of the holiday entertaining season so it’s may be a chance to get people to think about turkey isn’t the only thing you can serve during the holidays. We love turkey too but a standing bison rib roast - man, there’s nothing better during the holidays.
I love the taste of bison steaks or hamburgers but there are a lot of people that just believe that it’s going to taste different or “gamey.”
CARTER: That’s been our big, big challenge over the last 10 years. We talk to people about it’s very nutritious, we talk to them about it’s all natural and we talk to them about it tastes great and what we found was people said well I understand this nutrition part and I understand this all-natural part. You guys don’t use the growth hormones and all that but I’ve never tasted it and I think it’s going to be gamey and so we’ve had a real challenge in getting that first taste in people’s mouthes and what we’ve found is once they take that first bite they’er going “wow” this really does taste good. Where can I find some more. Now that is our challenge to get more out there that they can find.
Carter says they are in a huge growth mode but there is a lot of room for more producers and he says if you have questions about raising bison there are a lot of people willing to help. Or you can pick up a copy of the Bison Producers Handbook or their new video. Visit their website at bisoncentral.com. More tomorrow with bison rancher Keith Yearout.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
