RED DEER – Marvin Moore is one of the survivors.
He had been in the bison business for 10 years when the discovery of BSE in Alberta in 2003 knocked the industry to its knees.
The species was included in international trade bans, and many producers left the business before they lost everything.
“By the end of 2004 our bison cows were worth nothing,” said Moore, who is chair of Bison Producers of Alberta.
“Bison suffered worse than beef. Bison calves were worth $50 and cows were bringing $500.”
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Moore, who farms in the Peace River district of northwestern Alberta, was a primary supplier of breeding bulls, selling 60 to 70 per year. Animals that weren’t good enough for that market went into his 1, 000 head feedlot and were eventually sold into the United States.
Cows sold for up to $8,000, which Moore described as a pyramid scheme that could not sustain itself without meat sales.
The eventual market crash significantly diminished the industry, but Moore said it did not deplete the gene pool.
Producers had previously used all their animals for breeding, which sometimes hurt quality.
“What has happened since BSE is people have been culling their herds and selling the poorest cows and keeping the best ones,” he said during a regional bison meeting in Red Deer.
“We have probably improved our genetics over the past few years.”
Bison associations are working to bring new people into the business, and Alberta is hosting a bison show and sale March 18-19 at Ponoka, Alta., to expose people to the possibilities.
The industry needs more slaughter ready animals, but it also requires more investment.
“It takes a friendly banker or someone who has been in some other business to get started,” he said.
“I would hope we will see a lot of people get started with 50 head.”
Associations can also teach new producers about fencing, handling systems and animal health to rebuild the business.
At the same time, the Alberta association struggles to stay viable . It has 200 dues paying members but some may not have any livestock.
The association is supported with membership fees and a $3 per head checkoff that is often hard to collect. It also receives a share of money from the sale of ear tags.
“When the government announced all checkoffs are refundable, we had even less coming in,” Moore said.
Sales of bison meat have doubled since 2005 and it is estimated that 92,000 head of bison were processed in the United States and Canada last year.
