Balancing inventory with market demand is a constant challenge for the bison industry.
“There are consequences for getting out of balance,” said Bob Dineen, president and founder of Rocky Mountain Natural Meats in Denver, Colorado.
The market changes from year to year so it isn’t even a matter of looking at previous sales to determine how many animals should be slaughtered, he said.
“You really have to be paying attention,” he told the Canadian Bison Association annual convention.
At this time of year, tenderloin and rib eye cuts are most popular, but his plant can’t slaughter extra animals for such a small amount of the market. The whole carcass has to be sold, and Dineen needs customers for the more than 90 kilograms of trim he’ll have to grind.
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He prefers to slaughter bulls because the carcasses are more consistent, predictable and cut out better.
Lightweight or low-yielding animals are a problem.
“If we don’t know they’re coming, then we’re in trouble,” he said. “We’re going to grind them … we could be short a significant number of middle cuts and we’re out of balance with what our customers need.”
This affects cash flow and inventory levels. Dineen said communication is key in order to manage these factors, as well as processing, packaging and employee work schedules.
“We want to kill an animal that we can sell pretty much the whole animal in a week,” he said. “That’s better than having trim in the freezer.”
Dean Andres, from Calgary based Carmen Creek Gourmet Meats, said there isn’t a Canadian market for the whole carcass. He said the market pull is coming from American consumers, although Canadians are beginning to ask for natural and antibiotic-free products.
Andres said it’s challenging to work with distributors to get bison meat into food service because consistent weekly supply isn’t certain.
Carmen Creek will begin placing product into 34 restaurants next month. A promotion involving short ribs will follow in 50 restaurants in February. The company is also working to put its products into 145 western Canadian retailers in December, followed by a move into Eastern Canada.
Andres said the company has invested about $40 per head in marketing this year.
He added that most of Carmen Creek’s bison are slaughtered in the United States because that maximizes returns.
