MONUMENT — Susan Popp was a manager at Hewlett-Packard and her husband was a pilot at the Air Force Academy when they decided to become bison ranchers.
Now, the U.S. bison industry is trying to encourage more people — whether they’re veteran cattle ranchers or newcomers like the Popps — to start raising the animals to help meet growing demand nationwide.
“People understand the health benefits of bison. More people are trying it,” said Susan Popp, 42. “It’s not quite so exotic.”
Since they began more than a decade ago, the Popps’ Black Forest Bison ranch boasts a herd of about 60 buffalo, and their store in Colorado Springs is looking for more bison suppliers.
“If things keep going with the demand growing the way it is, we need to get some more people out there raising buffalo,” said Dave Carter, executive director of the Denver-based National Bison Association.
The industry, which touts the meat as a healthier, leaner alternative to beef, is offering an online “Bison 101” course, evangelizing the benefits of bison to lenders and expanding mentoring opportunities for new ranchers.
But it may be a tough sell right now, as factors that are affecting other meat producers such as the cost of land and rising fuel and feed prices can be obstacles to starting a bison ranch.
In the past few years, the bison association has built demand among customers looking for locally supplied, lower-fat alternatives to beef, and more top chefs are starting to serve bison. Largely wild, bison can calve on their own and aren’t regularly injected with antibiotics or hormones. They also do well in extreme climates.
“It’s a tiny part of American agriculture, but bison has been a part of people’s diets on this continent for thousands of years, and there’s a good reason for that,” said Bob Dineen, who founded Rocky Mountain Natural Meats based in Denver.
The trade group estimates up to 70 million bison may have roamed North America centuries ago, but that figure had dwindled to about 1,000 by 1900. The industry claims credit for helping the population rebound.
Annual sales at Dineen’s company have increased from 700,000 pounds to more than 2 million pounds over the past five years.
