Leonard Epp has 700 bison feeder bulls to finish this winter. He said selling meat to directly to consumers from his yard is a non-starter.
He has 1,200 bison on his farm near Winnipeg and said he anticipated the fall in breeding stock prices.
“It was inevitable. The business of meeting the breeding stock market has met the reality of the meat business. Unfortunately there are some market problems on the meat side,” he said.
Epp said he is in the business of raising bison, not selling meat, and he is not about to change that.
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“If I wanted to sell meat I would have built an abattoir. I build fence and cut hay, not meat,” he said in an interview from his farm.
Murray Woodbury, scientist at Western College of Veterinary Medicine, said the industry will rebound.
“If this were the financial industry they would call it a market correction. I believe it is an agricultural market correction and the industry will survive, but it will look a little different in the end,” he said.
Looking for packers
Epp is one of 80 Canadian members of a 350 producer-member bison slaughter co-op located in North Dakota. He said the co-op has about a two-year supply of frozen bison meat and for producers like him, it has meant searching out new packers to take his animals.
“The co-op has 300 of ours. We don’t get paid until they sell the meat. The co-op can move the premium cuts like nobody’s business. It is the trim that is killing us,” he said.
Epp now sells his bison to an Edmonton company. He said there is less money for the animals “but at least we get paid and they take the whole animal.”
