‘Calm as can be’: Bison Day offers a taste of massive animals at Agribition

It was an important day for people in the bison industry, as Tuesday marked the third annual Bison Day at Canadian Western Agribition.

The goal of the day is to promote awareness and get people interested in producing bison.

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The event highlights the animals, and allows the breeders to bring in the bison early so they can leave early.

This isn’t Barry Haubrich’s first rodeo, he’s been working with bison since the 1990s.

“A lot of my friends had bison as well, so we kept watching and looking and bought some,” he said. “Once you have some, it kind of grows on you.”

Barry and his son Cole, who operate from Hodgeville, Sask., have four heifers up for sale, including the grand champion female.

They’re hoping to sell her for up to $6,000.

Barry said it’s an important day to celebrate bison producing.

“It’s good to get together,” he said. “This is probably the premier show in North America, I would say. Anybody that comes into here gets a good chance to see the animals, and learn about the animals.”

He expected all the bison to sell. But he said competition is tough.

“Everybody seems to bring their best,” he said. “Anybody that’s up in this program here has been working at it and trying to do their best, as you can see in the quality of the animals.”

He hopes Bison Day will also quash any misconceptions about the creatures.

“People think they’re aggressive and they’re hard to handle, and it’s all a myth,” Barry said. “It’s the same as anything. Sometimes it takes the producer to learn how to handle them more than anything. But no, they’re fine, as you can see, they’re calm as can be in here.”

Barry recommends people come down to Agribition and try some of the lean bison meat.

“The meat is unbelievable. It sells itself,” he said.

Barry and Cole Haubrich’s bison won Grand Champion Female. She’s a two year old heifer. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

Canadian Bison Association proud of Bison Day

Robert Johnson, Vice Chair of the Canadian Bison Association, said Bison Day is a concept the board came up with collectively.

“We wanted to have a focus on on the animal itself and just what it means to everybody — the animals (have) got a lot of significance to a lot of different people,” he said.

“Culturally, there’s that connection. It’s an amazing conservation story, from where they were less than 1000 (animals) to where we’re sitting today.”

Robert Johnson is the Vice Chair of the Canadian Bison Association. He said bison day is an important day to highlight the animal and get others interested in them. (Abby Zieverink/980 CJME)

He said allowing the bison to come in early and leave early makes the week a breeze for producers.

“We’ve got this whole day to ourselves,” Johnson said. “There’s lots of people that are like, ‘Oh, where are the bison? Where are the bison?’ So it’s a big draw.”

In total there were about 45 bison up for sale, they come as far as Fort St. John, B.C., and Russell, MB.

He said the industry takes pride in doing the best work it can for consumers.

“We don’t want to change the animal. We want to keep it wild or undomesticated or pure,” he said.

“But as an industry, we want to look some of their traits. You look at cost of feed and cost of production and everything like that. We want to raise an efficient animal, so that it’s a price-viable option when people go grocery shopping or make make their their protein choices.”

Johnson said if people are looking to try tasting bison, the association has partnered with Rob Reinhardt from Prairie Smoke and Spice to create a pulled bison brisket at his food truck.

Agribition runs from Monday through Saturday.

— with files from 980 CJME’s Abby Zieverink

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