PONOKA, Alta. – A new bison auction sale at a central Alberta cattle auction didn’t exactly go as planned.
It was billed as a breeders’ sale with organizers hoping to attract high prices for the 180 head of Woods and Plains bison. In the end it became clear that the bison industry continues to struggle to attract anything higher than meat prices.
“It was a disappointment from the standpoint of price,” said organizer John Pilon of Ponoka.
Prices ranged from an average $233 for the 45 heifer calves sold, to a high of $740 for the three two-year-old breeding bulls sold during the Feb. 20 auction.
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“We may not have got the prices we wanted, but now we have a new market venue,” said Pilon.
“For us that’s a partial victory.”
It was the first bison auction to be held at Vold, Jones and Vold Auction, the Ponoka auction market specializing in cattle sales.
Dan Skeels, VJV auctioneer and bison sale organizer, said the market had been looking to diversify from cattle to bison before BSE hit and the Family Day auction was its first foray.
“We’re still learning what needs to be done,” said Skeels, who added a few modifications were made to the cattle facility to accommodate the bison.
Sheets of plastic were tied to the alleyway panels to create a visual barrier. Producers used to working with bison were brought in to help move the animals through the facility and the smaller sales ring, with higher sides, was used to sell the animals.
There is only a handful of auction markets across the Prairies that are willing or capable of selling bison, known for being more flighty than cattle, in their rings.
“It’s not going to be a rapid paced sale today,” Skeels told the crowd before the auction began.
“Our main goal is to get the animals through safe and keep the people in the back safe. We’re not trying to set speed records.”
Pilon said with high costs of trucking and low prices for bison, it’s important to establish another venue for bison sales. VJV staff announced they would hold another bison auction March 20.
“At a time when you’re looking to save costs, your trucking has got to be lower if nothing else,” said Pilon.
Joe Orcheski, a bison producer from Round Hill, Alta., isn’t sure the industry needs more bison auctions. The key to the industry’s survival is reopening the American border and getting more Canadian companies to buy animals.
“It needs buyers,” he said. “We don’t have enough and they control the price.”
Before the border closed when BSE was discovered in a northern Alberta cow, Orcheski often sold his prize-winning animals for more than $30,000.
During last year’s Wild Rose Classic Bison Show and Sale in Red Deer, Alta., his grand champion heifer sold for $350 and his grand champion bull sold for $700.
Before BSE, 90 percent of his animals were sold to American buyers hungry for high quality breeding bison.
“The border needs to be opened for breeding stock,” said Orcheski.
Butch Smith, who owns a bison feedlot west of Rimbey and a wholesale and retail bison business in Red Deer, bought the majority of animals at the sale. He said most will end up in the hot American market.
While breeding animals and animals older than 30 months of age can’t cross the border, bison destined for slaughter can be sold into the United States.
“I’ll send them as fats to the U.S.,” said Smith, who predicted higher prices next fall.
Prices should go higher because of a shortage of bison in the U.S. and a bison slaughter plant expected to be opened soon in Lacombe, Alta.
“It just takes time for the whole industry to come around,” said Smith.
