USDA Works To Offer Assistance To A Variety Of Commodity Groups

The bison industry is one reflection of the broad scope of USDA programs available to our nation's producers.

"Because of the efforts of the USDA, we have managed to make it through some rather difficult times; most recently, the C-FAP program," said Donnis Baggett of the National Bison Association. "That helped a lot of our smaller folks, and even some of the larger one's, hang on in the darkest days of the pandemic."

Coinciding with the pandemic was a glut of cull animals. But thanks to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service:

"We were able to get the section 32 program in place," Baggett said. "That allowed us to move a lot of that meat and keep the market value for animals higher than it would be otherwise."]

Bison producer Jim Matheson offers other examples of APHIS assistance to the industry:

"We are working with the APHIS Fort Collins office right now on a follow-up study.  They had done an epidemiological study on bison in 2014 and now we're doing a follow-up study; the Bison '22 Study is coming up here."

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