03/23/07 Bison Try To Rebound

Bison Try To Rebound. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Bison industry leaders from the United States and Canada have begun the process of analyzing the long-term growth trends in the industry - and begun mapping a strategy to stimulate new production from bison ranchers. During a recent meeting industry leaders looked to address growing concerns that demand may out-pace supply. The Executive Director of the National Bison Association, Dave Carter says the Bison industry needs to grow. CARTER: We recognize that the demand for bison meat is really growing very rapidly. We're very pleased with they way consumers are embracing bison as a great tasting meat, is a very healthy meat and a very sustainable meat but we know if we're going to continue that demand trend we've got to be increasing the herds as well. According to Carter, the bison industry has just come out of a tough period and with demand high, the industry is ready for considerable growth. CARTER: Now that we've started marketing the meats more successfully and we've started making that connection with consumers, we anticipate that we're going to be growing by more than 10% a year over the next several years and we want to make sure that there are the animals out there that the ranches are building their herds to be able to supply that demand. With beef prices on the rise due to a number of factors the price difference between beef and bison products is becoming less of a factor in consumer choice. But Carter says bison will probably always be a bit of a novelty. But Carter says: CARTER: One thing that's unanimous about our producers and our marketers is we don't want to be just another version of beef. We know that people today are looking for more variety even as they are coming back to eating more red meat they're looking for more variety, they're looking for a different taste and they're looking for a higher quality experience. We want to really stake our claim in that area. One critical issue is how USDA treats the bison industry. Carter explains. CARTER: The beef industry, the lamb industry, the pork industry  all of those sectors, when their products go through a USDA inspecting facility the USDA pays for the cost of those inspectors to be there but as soon as a bison comes along in that facility, all of a sudden the marketer or the producer has to pay the cost of that inspection and many times that adds $70 to $100 on the cost of processing an animal which has to be passed along to consumers. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.