A Look Back for the National Bison Association
The mission of the National Bison Association is to bring together stakeholders to celebrate the heritage of American bison, to educate, and to create a sustainable future for our industry. In early spring, the elected leadership for the National Bison Association developed a strategic plan to translate our mission into intentional actions for the next two years. This year, the focus was on intentionally shaping our future through education, outreach, lobbying & advocacy, profitability, and evolving the organization.
The Annual Report is a glimpse at all that has happened in the last year. We want to invite our membership to fully utilize their memberships and communicate our wins and vision for 2025. You will notice quickly that there has been a pretty big increase in connecting with consumers, members, and potential members. In 2024, the NBA held six member conferences attended by over 1,000 people! The NBA was also represented through presentations and outreach at over one hundred events.
Our 2024 summer conference season welcomed the most attendees to date. We partnered with Texas Bison Association/ ROAM Ranch, Kansas Buffalo Association/ Kansas Wildlife and Parks, Eastern Bison Association/ Pitcher Farms, and Rocky Mountain Bison Association/ Prairie Ridge Buffalo Ranch to offer events in the North, South, East and West. These events collectively gathered over 350 members, all on working bison operations across the country.
Also, this summer, we welcomed over 120 veterinarians, researchers, and bison stewards at the International Bison Health Symposium held in Brookings, SD. They represented 16 U.S. States, 3 Canadian Provinces and 3 Nations. Gathering these bison health professionals together leads to shared resources and networking, exchanging ideas and best practices with the goal of keeping bison healthy and thriving.
The generosity of members of all sizes has been robust this year in support of the Growth Fund. The NBA Growth Fund was established to raise important funds that support the NBA’s outreach to consumers and the general promotion of bison to the public. Donations to this fund raise these crucial outreach dollars and support the day-to-day operations of the NBA’s important work.
For 2024, we have achieved a 50% increase for in-person consumer outreach. We had a really neat opportunity to collaborate with Ted’s Montana Grill utilizing social media influencers helping contribute to more than 1 million people reached through social media. The NBA reached about 63,000 through in person outreach with presence at 5 producer-facing farm shows and conferences and ten consumer events.
In throwing around all these numbers and statistics, we would be missing the mark if we did not highlight that we continue to provide membership access to live bison pricing, herd health information, production expense data, and marketing materials and tools. The NBA provides year-round legislative and regulatory work with Congress and federal agencies to ensure an even playing field for bison producers and marketers while supporting policies that will restore bison across North America.
We are excited to offer our members cost share for grazing practices, and in many cases premiums for bison calves raised regeneratively. To see if you qualify simply email: karen@bisoncentral.com to learn more about the NBA’s involvement in the Grass is Greener on the Other Side – Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities project. This is made possible through collaboration with South Dakota State University, the SDSU Center of Excellence in Bison Studies, Tanka Fund, and generous grant funding through the USDA NRCS Climate Smart program.
This community spanning the globe is bound by the heritage of the American Bison and is building a future for the animal we love and the people that steward them. A small and mighty staff are doing this work alongside a wonderful collection of members and partner organizations. Thank you to all of you who served as leaders of our organization in 2024! We truly value what you bring to the table and hope you will continue to serve this organization. We would love to have more of you join us to provide governance and guidance, teach at and host events, share your stories with others and help mentor beginning bison stewards. Through collaboration we are able to fulfill our mission through education, bringing people together, communication, events, promoting bison, facilitating relationships, and providing a coordinated national voice.
Click here to read our full 2024 Annual Report.