FFA Learn about Bison
The Southwest FFA students had a chance to listen Darrell Meister, from Hawaii, but a member of the Nebraska Bison Association. On Monday, January 19 he spoke on the history of bison which showed that bison migrated to North America over 20,000 years ago. During the 1900s they were nearly hunted to extinction by the settlers after their numbers had risen to almost 30 million bison in North America the previous century.
Some the pros of having bison is that by grazing them you may have a healthier pastures. Bison eat yucca and red cedar that cattle won’t eat. They are especially good when you rotate beef animals and bison seasonally. The bison also require less handling. This means no pulling calves,no branding and a higher calving survival rate. This is because they breed in the spring and they don’t require handling, thus less stress on the animals and on the farmer.
Some cons are the illiquid market, the cost of the bison, and the supply and demand ratio. If you have bison you may want higher stronger fences because if a bull is being beat out for heifers by another bull then the other one will get out. Also, there are very few bison auctions duing the year, thus it is hard to market or purchase bison. But, with bison, the supply sometimes is less than the demand therefore driving prices up. This past year during holidays the supply was less than the demand, so the prices spiked for the buyer. A typical price for bison calves is around $4 per pound.
Overall I think having him come and show us the differences gave all of us a different outlook on how bison is raised. Mr. Meister emphasized that Bison production is not in competition with beef production, but rather is a companion animal that could be produced along side beef production. This could be an interesting SAE but a very expensive one at that!