The COVID 19 pandemic has impacted nearly all areas of agriculture including the bison industry in 2020. National Bison Association Executive Director Dave Carter says bison producers had been having several years of growth up until the pandemic hit. He says the pandemic caused a loss of high cuts of meat as consumers were purchasing ground product.

He says the effects of the pandemic on processing plants also hurt bison producers this year.

Carter says the good news for bison producers is that as consumers are becoming more health conscious, bison being a lean meat fits well into those types of diets.

Carter says another benefit of raising bison is that they restore healthy grasslands. He says those grasslands help take carbon out of the air and put it back into the soils benefitting the environment.