Value-Adding Key To Success

REGINA - Apr 3/06 - SNS -- Two friends who got into the buffalo business in 2001 say they must find value added opportunities in order for their business to continue growing into the future.

Meridian Bison Company has customers in Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert, and has also created a niche serving the francophone community as far away as Manitoba and Alberta by placing advertisements in the provincial French weekly L'Eau Vive.

"It is snowballing," says Michel Dubé of the company's market, "and we have an e-mail marketing list that has also helped get the word out."

He and partner Terry Rock are looking at doubling their herd within the next two years. They want to diversify into two different areas: one is an on-farm retail store which will feature all types of meat and value-added products like patés and prepared meals; the other is the creation of a separate herd of purebred Plains bison. (Their animals are currently a Woods/Plains bison crossbreed.)

"We realize that, in order to be successful financially in this operation, we have to value-add," explains Dubé. "We make jerky and pepperoni. Right now, in Saskatchewan and any other agricultural areas in Canada, we are not paid what we need to be paid to be economically viable. The price of commodities, whether they are grain beef, bison or anything else, is low and in Saskatchewan, particularly so, because of the nature of the economy."

Two friends of over 20 years, two neighbors and an undying entrepreneurial spirit: that pretty much describes Terry Rock and Michel Dubé. The former is a retired wildlife biologist; the latter, a businessman who owns a successful fishing lodge at Oliver Lake in northern Saskatchewan.

"I have had some land up here for quite a while," says Dubé, "and I was renting it out to my neighbor. Terry had 160 acres at the time—he just approached me to see if I wanted to raise livestock. He was more interested in elk because he had worked quite a bit with wild elk as a biologist. I said, 'No, not elk. It isn't something that interests me.' We were just talking, and he asked, 'How about buffalo?' I said, 'Buffalo? OK.' I started researching this a little bit. We started fencing that spring, and put our first animals in there in October of that year.

"We raise them until they are 24 months, slaughter them and sell the meat almost exclusively at the retail level to individuals. We have a list of clients we have developed, and people contact us, or we contact them once in a while to find out if they want some meat, and they can buy one pound or a whole animal if they want."

Between them, Rock and Dubé now have about 1,200 acres of land in hay and pasture.

"There are 200 acres here, 300 acres there: three or four parcels of land in all. Not everything is fenced. Some of the land is used to grow hay, which we bale. We have about half of the land fenced off at the moment. We pretty much grass-feed our animals. We use the hay mostly in the winter to supplement their grazing. They graze from, basically, June 1 to December 1, depending on snow conditions."

Every two weeks or so during the winter, the partners bring in 25 to 30 round bales that they run through a bale processor.

"It basically shreds the hay. We put two of the 1,500-pound bales on the machine, and it shoots it out on the side. We sometimes supplement the hay with oats to maximize the cows' protein and health levels so their breeding success is higher."

Dubé is thankful for his business experience in building Meridian Bison Company.

"It certainly has helped, because I don't have a formal business education. We are able to navigate through the different steps and jump through the different hoops to bring about a profitable situation. And we are also not scared to try things out because, in business, you have to try things to succeed. Sometimes you do, sometimes, you don't. Hopefully you do."