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July 1993

State Roundups
North Dakota

Bison processing plant going up in New Rockford

In May, the North American Bison Cooperative began construction on a $1.4 million processing plant in New Rockford that is likely the first committed solely to the slaughter of bison.

The plant will employ 10 to 15 people when it begins processing in November and expects to handle about 2,000 animals in its first year.

New Rockford, a town of about 1,700 north of Jamestown, is in the heart of North Dakota's bison-raising country. The majority of the cooperative's 181 members are from North Dakota; the remainder come from South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and Canada.

While it is difficult to estimate the number of bison ranchers in North America, the numbers are increasing as people see the potential for profit, according to Ken Throlson, the co-op's acting chairman. "There is a much higher profit ratio for bison than for cattle," Throlson adds, citing minimal overhead and less time commitment.

"If things are done right, there is no limit for potential growth," Throlson says. But at this time, the demand for bison, which is low in fat and cholesterol, is much greater than the supply. "If the same amount of bison were slaughtered per day as beef, the entire domestic herd would be depleted in one day," Throlson says.

"I don't see the supply catching up with the demand until about 20 years down the road," says Brad Lodge, plant manager. "The most important thing to do at this time is to increase the number of ranchers and build up the herds."

Lodge warns that the co-op needs to be cautious about marketing when there is not enough of the product to go around. "We do not want to take the chance of losing the market entirely," he says.

"Any time you get more people marketing a product, the more successful it will be," says Domink Luond, owner of Country Pride Meats in Ipswich, S.D., and a member of the Minneapolis Fed's Advisory Council on Agriculture, Small Business and Labor. Luond, who has raised bison for the past eight years, says he's seen a steady increase in bison prices and he can't keep up with orders for the meat. "The demand, the high prices and the new plant will get more people involved in the industry, and that's good for all of us."

The demand for bison meat is greatest on the East and West coasts as people are introduced to the product, Lodge says. And Throlson adds that inquiries have been received from Europe as well.

Not only will the plant benefit the community by encouraging an increase in producers and herds, and as a result an increase in plant employees, but spinoff industries are expected to develop. Requests have already been made for bison hides.

—Barbara Halvorson

State hopes to expand coal research

North Dakota voters will decide next June whether to dedicate a portion of the state's coal trust fund to clean coal research.

If that measure fails, then part of the coal tax revenue that normally goes to the state's general fund would be earmarked for the lignite research fund.

Those efforts to assure funding for coal research were made by the state Legislature this spring even before it learned that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) turned down a proposal for a clean-coal demonstration power plant in Center. State officials had looked to the Center plant to enhance North Dakota's important coal industry.

According to Mark Conrad, communications director for the North Dakota Lignite Energy Council, coal is about a $1.2 billion industry in the state. An average of 30 million tons of lignite, or low-grade coal, is mined annually in North Dakota. At this rate, North Dakota contains an estimated 1,000 year supply.

An April 1993 study released by North Dakota State University reports that in 1992, 3,384 people were directly employed by the coal industry, with another 15,201 in secondary jobs. The industry also dumped $63.4 million into state coffers last year in the form of taxes.

At the forefront of the state's research efforts is the University of North Dakota's Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC), which attracted more than $20 million in fiscal 1992 in federal, state and private contracts to conduct energy and environmental research for clients across the nation and throughout the world.

Recently the EERC received a grant from the DOE for participation in Combustion 2000, a program to develop a new generation of coal-fired power plants by the year 2000. "It's a chance to be on the cutting edge of technology that will be coming into play in the next century," says Pat Miller, the EERC's communications coordinator. "There may even be a silver lining in the rejection of the Center plant proposal," Miller adds. "Maybe we need to look at something totally new."

Although the Center clean coal project was turned down, the DOE still has uncommitted additional funds for other projects and North Dakota may benefit in the future, says Clifford Porter, director of the lignite research and development program for the state. Porter, who is also technical adviser to the Lignite Research Council and North Dakota Industrial Commission, points out that 40 percent of coal produced or consumed in the United States comes from west of the Mississippi River, but 80 percent of DOE funds have gone to the eastern United States—a statistic he'd like to see change.

—Kathy Cobb