GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – Bison producers who have suffered through drought, high feed prices and now BSE are hoping better prices will soon return to their industry.
“The people left are serious about the industry, but they’re also questioning how much longer they have to hang on,” said Linda Saunter, with the Alberta Bison Centre.
Each week, Saunter gets calls from producers around the province wondering when the price of bison will rise.
Long gone are the days when good breeding cows sold for $3,000 each. Now producers are lucky to sell a bison cow for $100.
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“It has weeded out a lot of hobbyists,” said Saunter during the Peace Country Bison Association annual meeting last week.
Hanging on until better times return is hard when it costs $200 a year just to feed an animal. There are few options for producers who don’t want to keep their animals.
Vern Moore of Grande Prairie said that in previous years, producers at the annual meeting would discuss weaning weights and calf numbers. Now they discuss their off-farm jobs and how they’re going to continue.
“We do have a wonderful product but if producers can’t afford to stay in the industry, how can we afford to bring the animals to the consumer,” said Moore, who now sells real estate.
The closing of the border to bison because of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in a cow has hurt producers who used to sell live animals and meat into the United States.
A cow worth $100 to $200 in Canada sells for $1,200 in the U.S., but producers can’t access that market.
Developing a strong Canadian meat market is seen as key to the industry’s survival. Once a stable market for meat is developed, prices for breeding stock will begin to recover.
Pieter Spinder, a Peace River, Alta., bison producer, got tired of waiting for better markets for his 700 head so he opened a federally inspected processing plant in Calgary.
This year about 500 bison were slaughtered through his Carmen Creek Gourmet Meats plant, but he hopes to slaughter 3,000 bison a year.
Bison producers and processors were their own worst enemy, said Spinder.
Instead of selling consumers only top-quality fattened buffalo meat, any animal was slaughtered for meat. The meat from old cows or young bulls all went into the same box.
“I’m positive about this industry, but we’ve got to raise the bar on meat quality,” he said.
Existing processors also have to concentrate on selling the poorer cuts of bison as sausage or hamburger and not rely solely on the prime cuts.
“If you can sell the trim, the good cuts will sell themselves.”
As the meat markets slowly develop, Spinder expects more producers will leave the industry. Few people are willing to keep feeding low-priced bison.
“Not a lot of farmers can wait any longer.”
Spinder is still optimistic the bison industry will recover over the next two years.
“We’re a young industry. I think we’re going to make it work.”
