Prices at this year’s Canadian Western Agribition bison sale reflect the upswing in the industry, says the president of the Canadian Bison Association.
Mark Silzer said the gross amount at the 2010 sale nearly doubled last year’s total on the same number of lots.
Sixty lots sold for $212,250 and an average $3,537.50.
The high seller was a two-year-old bull, consigned by Silver Creek Bison of Binscarth, Man., which went to Prairie Land &Bison Co. of Windthorst, Sask., for $8,000.
Silzer said meat prices are at all-time highs and producers are retaining females to ramp up production to meet demand.
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Most buyers at the sale were existing producers who weathered the recent industry downturn. There was also American interest.
“There’s some renewed interest in breeding stock and we were sort of out of that for a while,” Silzer said.
Difficult times in the industry after BSE forced many producers out of the business. Some who still have the infrastructure and desire to raise bison are coming back.
Silzer said the industry spent the downturn working on marketing and created a demand it now has to fill.
Bison meat is viewed as a healthy, nutritious choice and is no longer a novelty, he said.
“When we first started seven or eight years ago to really concentrate on marketing, the most frequent question we got was, ‘what does it taste like,’ ” he said. “Now, it’s, ‘where do I buy it.’ ”
Those factors were reflected in the Nov. 23 Agribition sale.
A sale a week earlier at the Custer State Park annual fall sale in South Dakota also saw substantially higher prices. Producers are showing strong interest in feeder stock, and heifer calves are selling for higher prices than bull calves.
“People are maybe looking at retaining those animals to breed,” Silzer said.
While the higher prices are good for producers, he cautioned that the industry doesn’t want to see them get out of hand. In the late 1990s, the industry was so driven by the breeding side that people paid exorbitant prices for animals.
Now, the marketers are feeling the pinch as prices rise and their margins shrink. Silzer said there could be some consolidation among marketers. He also said the market is virtually limitless as producers look outside North America and aim to increase domestic consumption.
Consumers eat two ounces, or 56 grams, of bison per capita per year, compared to per capita annual beef consumption at 50 pounds, or 22.6 kilograms.
