The Bison had their day at Canadian Western Agribition.
Tuesday was Bison Day. A Bison sale occurred at the John Deere Sale Arena and recipes incorporating bison meat were made at the Canada Beef/Saskatchewan Cattle Association Beef Stand inside the Affinity-Plex at REAL District.
Robert Johnson, the Vice-President of the Canadian Bison Association, was at Agribition for Bison Day and felt it was a success.
"We had our educational component. We booked in with the Regina schools, so we're a really big part of doing all the youth activities. We've had our booth set up, bison hides and bison skulls there. We had a trivia game called "Buff or Bluff", which is basically fun bison facts based in kind of like a true or false format. Some really cool prizes, some bison bites jerky donated by one of our sponsors, and then of course our live animal sale." Johnson said.
The sale had 58 head of Bison entered in, an increase of twelve from the previous year, Johnson said.
"There's lots of optimism in the industry again, and there's lots of good genetics out there that people want to showcase." he added.
Johnson credits the success of Bison Day and the increased presence at Agribition to their partnership with organizers. He recalled a conversation he had with a member of the Agribition board.
"We've tried really hard to add value to their programming as far as like some of the teaching and learning opportunities for the general public and other agricultural industries in terms of bison. We've tried really hard to add value for that and I think they're really appreciating that. So the one comment was we need to figure out how they can get bison here all week." said Johnson.
Some brainstorming is needed to figure out how to include Bison at Agribition all week, he added.
"We're typically here for about four days. Bison are easy keepers when they're out in the pasture, or when they're in a pen or a bit of an enclosed situation like this, there's a little bit more upkeep with them. It'll be a good discussion to have."
Asked if utilizing Mosaic Stadium would be a good fit for Bison, Johnson said maybe.
"I don't know what the aftermath would look like. But it would be something to sure think about with the folks," he said. "AstroTurf probably doesn't have a very good relative feed value. So we'd have to supplement with some good high quality alfalfa hay."
