KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 2 (UPI) -- Buffalo producers joined other food producers Thursday in a meeting with Agriculture Department officials to bid for contracts as part of the federal government's $155 million surplus food commodities program.
Buffalo producers want to reduce the size of the herd, which now numbers 300,000. In the 1800s, the U.S. buffalo herd was thinned to as few as 1,500 animals. At current levels, prices are down about 15 percent with breeding stock down 75 percent.
"We recognize the U.S. government is a major market," said David Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association. "It's a consumer of food products for schools, hospitals, prisons, the military -- the U.S. government is the largest single customer out there."
Bison ranching grew rapidly throughout the 1990s with sales tilted toward high-end restaurants, Carter said. As a result much of the "trim products" were left to stockpile. Couple that with drought in large parts of the country and there are some very compelling reasons for reducing the herd, Carter said.
Carter said he expects the federal government to contract for $10 million in buffalo meat at approximately $3.50 per pound, compared with the retail price of $7.50. There is about 600 pounds of meat per animal.
There are approximately 2,400 buffalo ranches, with the highest concentrations in the Dakotas, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming.
"But there are operations all over the country -- even in Long Island," Carter said. The biggest bison herder is media mogul Ted Turner's with an estimated 30,000 head.
Ron Lester, who raises buffalo in Harvard, Ill., about 50 miles northwest of Chicago, said if we are serious about reducing heart disease and cholesterol and dealing with weight gain problems facing children these days, we need to turn to lower-fat, lower-calorie meats like buffalo.
"This program will introduce new meat nutritional values to young people," Lester said.
The federal program will be geared to producers who can provide the federal government with 40,000-pound lots of meat. Carter said the real problem is getting the animals slaughtered and processed. There are about 12 processors around the country that handle the majority of the buffalo. The biggest is the North American Bison Co-op in North Dakota.
Bison meat represents a tiny fraction of the food supply. Just 19,400 animals were slaughtered last year. That compares with 100,000 cattle slaughtered daily in the United States. It generally takes two to three years to bring a buffalo to market weight, compared with 18 months for cattle.
USDA spokesman Kathryn Mattingly said no decision had been made on whether to include buffalo meat in the school lunch program and current plans call for surplus meat to be sent to Indian reservations as part of the USDA's overall surplus commodities program.
Last year, the government bought $3 million in buffalo meat, down from $7 million in 1999.
