WINNIPEG – With the first question, a woman punctured the balloon of success surrounding a new diversification project.
“Where can you buy bison meat,” she asked.
North Dakota bison advocate Dennis Sexhus was flummoxed. The industry is concentrating on restaurants because they are easier to get into than grocery stores like Safeway, he said. Consumers could try a rancher directly or they could call him at the North American Bison Co-operative in New Rockford, N.D., he added.
The question at a Nov. 14 session of the Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference points out the awkward gap for the 380 members of the bison group, a third of them from Canada. The co-op is six years old and is still looking for markets.
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“You’re right, it’s our challenge,” said Sexhus, chief executive officer of the bison co-op.
Bison meat is also 50 to 100 percent more expensive than beef, depending on the cut, he said. But on the positive side, there is no fat in bison. Not only is that a health benefit, but there is a cost saving since there is little shrinkage after cooking.
Sexhus demurred when another woman said shoppers are to blame for bison not being available because they prefer a familiar brand name. He said women can be good marketers because they want to talk about the emotional side of a food issue, how it affects children’s health and their neighbors.
“Men just want to talk about cows and fences.”
Sexhus said he saw the bison co-op as a way to save rural life. He said, half-joking, that for every occupied farmstead in his state, there are 10 that are empty.
When bison herds were in danger, they would circle together and protect each other. There is a lesson there for farmers if they want to capture a larger share of the food dollar, Sexhus said.
The situation for North Dakota farmers is “so terribly desperate” that they created 67 new co-ops since 1990. Some of them are paying off, by processing grain into baked goods, meat into sausage and milk into cheese. Sexhus said adding value is necessary because consumers will pay more for convenience, but not for a commodity.
Sexhus is sold on the value of new generation co-ops in which members buy shares that are linked to a delivery opportunity. He tells farmers they have to change from producers to marketers, wholesalers and retailers.
“Everything we ship should be in a corrugated box – a box of beer or spaghetti. Let’s not focus exclusively on another bushel of yield or an increase in the calf crop.”
Sexhus said the problem with production agriculture is the farmer is getting less value for his product even as the consumer pays more. The difference is being swallowed by food processors and grocers. He gave as an example the American farmer’s share of the consumer pork dollar. The farmer got 73 cents for every dollar spent on pork in 1946. By 1956 that was 52 cents and it had dropped to 12 cents in 1998 when the hog industry bottomed out.
“Why should the guy who owns the pig two to three weeks get paid more than the man who’s owned it two to three years?”
Sexhus said farmers should do more than complain. They should decide that if one pre-cooked chicken breast in sauce is worth more than several live chickens, then it’s important to work together to produce products the consumer wants.
