Bison ranchers develop turnaround strategy

DENVER -- The bison industry, struggling with low animal prices and its image as a niche market, has a turnaround strategy: Figure out how to deliver a consistent product.

Going mainstream means giving consumers and cooks more consistency and a meat-grading system similar to one used by Canadian bison producers, said Carter Gooding, a bison rancher and chef in Charlottesville, Va.

"We're killing ourselves," he said. "We sell people a good load, and then sell them a bad load."

The National Bison Association's winter conference focused on a marketing campaign that will include a two-month blitz in Nashville, Tenn. It was chosen from 20 possible sites because of its demographics and buying patterns.

Dave Carter, president of the Denver-based trade group, said members also are discussing an industrywide grading system that eventually could get the U.S. Department of Agriculture's blessing.

"That's one of the key issues we've identified, the ability of consumers to go in and choose consistently the type of product they want," he said.

At a crossroads

The bison industry, which flourished in the 1990s, is at a crossroads. Bulls and calves that sold for thousands of dollars now sell for hundreds of dollars and some ranchers have gone out of business.

The drought plaguing much of the Great Plains has made things worse. Carter said 85 percent of bison country is suffering drought.

Though media mogul Ted Turner, considered the nation's largest bison producer, has opened a chain of restaurants specializing in buffalo burgers, bison is still mostly found only in upscale restaurants.

Education and publicity are needed to get bison on the menu in more restaurants and in more grocery store freezers, Carter said.

Producers promote bison as a leaner alternative to beef, and point out that many bison eat nothing but grass or hay. They don't need as much water and can make do with snow.

Ranchers contend bison, which roam more while grazing, do less damage to rangeland than cattle. They don't need the care that domesticated animals do.

Though they compare bison to beef, bison producers don't see themselves competing with the cattle industry.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture says we slaughtered 19,463 bison in 2002. The beef folks slaughter 130,000 a day," Carter said.

But producers see reason for optimism in Americans' consumption of beef: up from 66.6 pounds per capita in 1995 to an estimated 68 pounds per capita last year, according to the Department of Agriculture.

"I think there's room for all the boats to rise," Carter said.

Carter says the industry needs to overcome some people's misconceptions that bison are still an endangered species -- there are now some 350,000 of the animals throughout the United States -- and that the meat tastes gamey.

"The biggest challenge is just getting people to take the first bite," he said.

Gooding, the Virginia rancher and chef, said the problem is that some bites are better than others. Gooding also sells bison meat for a Canadian company and tries to generate interest through new recipes and cooking tips.

"What chefs want is consistency," Gooding said. "If they order a box of 7-pound tenderloins, they want a box of 7-pound tenderloins. They don't want an 8-pound tenderloin, or 9-pound or 6-pound tenderloin."

He said U.S. producers should model Canada's grading system, which considers the animal's age and whether it was fed grain or grass. Gooding's bison feed on grass, but he said some ranchers give the animals grain for a while to add fat and marbling.

Gooding, whose family has raised Herefords in the Texas Panhandle for five generations, started raising bison because he fell in love "with this majestic creature that we almost killed." The industry has helped preserve the animal.

"We got to get it mainstream now," he said.

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On the Net

National Bison Association: www.bisoncentral.com/nba