Bison Economics Holding Strong

National Bison Association Executive Director, Jim Matheson says that currently, wholesale prices are up and holding steady.

“One exciting thing that's on my desk now are our current prices for bison at the wholesale level. We just last month according to USDA top $4, a pound hanging weight on our young bowls, that's essentially our prime animals. So we have not hit $4 A pound in about three and a half years. So that was very welcome news to our producers out there. And eventually, Laurie, you know, the supply of bison is very finite, and demand is up and our supply is tightening accordingly. And that causes our prices go up for quality animals, which keeps our producers happy. So that is a trend that's been ongoing for some time. We have increased our processing capacity for bison in the last couple of years with a couple of significant plant expansion on the larger end of the scale. So year to date, we're actually seeing processing up about 8% over last year at this time again, according to that same USDA AMS report.”

In addition to producer optimism.

“Or lack of drought, rather in Buffalo country, as we'll call it has really been welcoming us and really helped our outlooks here and our optimism.”

Matheson explains that most of the bison that is raised in the United States is raised in the mountainous west area, as well as the northern part of the country. Those regions have not experienced as much drought which has led to bison herd expansion in those areas.