Elk producers pooling expertise
Five central Ontario farmers foresee strength in numbers
BY BERNARD TOBIN
Peterborough county elk farmer Steve Waterworth has high hopes for Ontario's fledgling elk industry. But tapping into meat and velvet markets can be a tough chore for individual producers, says Waterworth, who farms 180 hybrid elk on 200 acres at Warsaw.Two years ago, Waterworth began talking with four other area elk farmers about the opportunities a business alliance would create: higher volume, group marketing and further processed products that create the marketing clout many individual farmers lack.
It was an opportunity Waterworth, Bob Allen, Anders Nilsson and partners Bill March and Bob Geddes decided they couldn't pass up.
Late last year, they launched Great North Elk Products Inc. With about 500 animals between them, the five partners - with help from technical adviser Steve Nahm - now offer a velvet antler product line produced at a new processing facility set up at March's Fraserville farm.
Meat products are also on the menu. As well as meat pies and a full line of cuts for consumers, Great North is currently supplying some "white tablecloth" restaurants in the area, says Nilsson. He's open for freezer and butcher shop orders and says a grocery chain and several processors have expressed interest in the product. Meat from animals from Nilsson's farm is certified organic.
Waterworth says the increased volume will allow Great North to compete for bigger contracts and give the partners more control over the price of their product.
"Farmers are at the wrong end when it comes to getting paid," says Waterworth. Processing the product "allows us to get closer to the market. You also have more control of your prices."
All four farms produce hybrid elk, a cross between elk and red deer. Waterworth says Great North prefers hybrids because they produce a bigger carcass - between 222 and 246 pounds - than red deer, and also produce antler.
While an average mature male hybrid will produce less velvet than a purebred elk - about 18 pounds for elk compared to 15 for hybrids - hybrid calves, priced between $1,500 and $2,000 each, are much cheaper than female elk, which can cost between $17,000 and $22,000. The hybrids also provide more flexibility: Better hybrids are keep for antler production while lesser hybrids and moved into the meat operation.
Steve Nahm is in charge of Great Elk's velvet production, producing a line of products long sought after in Asian markets as aphrodisiacs and treatment for a wide variety of ailments such as arthritis, anemia and symptoms of menopause.
Nahm, who has been buying and processing antler for many years, will handle the drying and curing facility, where antler is dried down for 21 to 30 days before being reduced to powder and capsuled.
With Asia still recovering from the economic flu, Nahm says local markets are the current targets for Great North antler products. "We have a fairly large Asian community looking for service," says Nahm. The dried antler and capsuled products are being marketed in health food stores and pharmacies.
Waterworth says the company also intends to offer its drying services to other farmers who can't afford costly on-farm drying setups. "It's a huge market for us," he says.
Traditionally, antler goes to western Canada for processing," Nahm says. "We intend to keep it here for processing."
Bill March says the key to success for Great North and the industry in general will be its ability to deliver high volume and top-quality product. "Loblaws isn't going to buy just two animals from me," he says.
His partner Bob Geddes agrees. He and March recently attended a Chinese function where the same issue came up again and again: "You need volume to talk to these people," he says.
© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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Asia key market for velvet remedy
The sand-coloured capsules in the pails at Yurtland, Peter Yurt's red deer and elk operation about 50 kilometres east of Ottawa near Casselman, resemble any number of flu remedies on pharmacy shelves, but these remedies are actually the product of processed velvet antler.In government regulatory terms this product is a food supplement and can't legally be called a treatment for anything. However, enthusiasts like Yurt would argue this ancient remedy provides a bigger bang for your health buck than what you'll find at the pharmacy.
Yurt, a Swiss-born businessman and former dairy farmer, has literature describing the historical uses of velvet antler and citing about two dozen impressive claims and testimonials from enthusiasts, ranging from anti-arthritic and anti-tumour benefits to preventive qualities for depression and osteoporosis.
Yurt has a passion for marketing. Founding president of the Canadian Red Deer Association, he contends some who have dabbled in deer raising aren't tuned in to quality standards, while others have been too passive in their marketing.
Yurtland is a marketer's masterpiece. Yurt began experimenting with niche marketing in the North American market back in 1994, long before the collapse of the Asian economy shrunk Canadian exports to Korea, where demand for his product had been heaviest.
Although velvet antler is the "central medicine in traditional Chinese medicine," it has roots among North American natives, too, he says. "A growing number of Canadians are rediscovering the past and looking for natural remedies," Yurt explains.
He began selling the processed antlers locally and through small distributors. Now he is also selling his processing services to other deer farmers and is negotiating with a pharmacy chain.
To maximize potency Yurt says antlers must be harvested at precisely the right time. He then uses a unique sequence of heat, vacuum and freeze-drying to eliminate bacteria and achieve proper moisture levels.
Resembling more of a research and development project than a business venture at first, Yurt's operation sold 20,000 bottles under the brand name Vita Prima Velvet Antler during the first three years. A 30-capsule bottle retails for between $24 and $26.
He initially restricted processing to antlers from his own animals - "I didn't want to make a mistake with other people's product" - but now he custom processes antlers shipped in by U.S. and Canadian farmers. For $5 per bottle, Yurt processes, bottles and labels the product, but producers do their own marketing.
Yurt has used embryo transfer and artificial insemination to boost horn production in his own herd. He estimates that improved genetics could increase annual horn production from current averages in most Canadian herds of around 10 pounds per animal to 23 pounds found in top European animals.
Even 10 pounds yields a very profitable 165 bottles per animal, and Yurt calculates a producer who contracts for his own private label and sells his production as capsules generates gross annual revenue of between $3,960 and $4,290 per animal.
There are antler processors around the world, but Yurt insists Canadian antlers are superior because animals here are normally supplemented with grain in addition to traditional pasture grasses. - Robert Irwin
© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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Perfect "receet" - or how to launder
Clothes go down to our washing machine in the basement in a never-ending cascade that would shock and dismay the pioneer woman. A lot of it is barely soiled, and I suspect these clothes often get washed because it's easier than folding them back into the closet.The lowly automatic washer has been given a bum rap over the years. It has been taken for granted in a most hideous manner.
In the 1930s and 1940s, when electric-powered clothes washers started arriving in many Ontario farm homes, advertisements in weekly newspapers heralded them as "wife savers." The ads showed unharried housewives leaning up against a gleaming white beauty while inside the machine a 30-pound load was swirling its brains out in a sudsy bath of effortless cleaning power.
These motorized labour-savers put a whiter-than-white boot to arm-strong clothes washers of the early Ontario settlers.
The shiny new electric appliances promised a life of leisure for the suddenly-freed-from-a-chore housewife. Housework would be done in a jiffy, and she'd be able to sleep in until noon and still get her washing done without so much as raising a sweat.
The honeymoon with the electric and later automatic clothes washer lasted quite some years. But in more recent decades it hasn't been all love and roses. In fact, some blessed with a short memory have been heard to blissfully appeal for the good old days when men were men and women were women.
Be careful what you wish for as the new millennium approaches, as some would have us believe the electricity will go out.
There were those who muttered: "All these electric appliances just made us slaves to the bank. They only freed us up for more work at home or part-time jobs away from home."
Frances Reading of Harriston, Wellington county, was never counted among those that muttered. She and her husband, Lloyd, retired from their Minto township farm in 1982 with some sadness and many happy memories. How could they forget the catalpa trees planted from nuts that Lloyd's Uncle James brought back from Michigan? Their sweet-scented blossoms resembled orchids.
And Frances never forgot washing days of old. Above her automatic washer in her new home in Harriston always hung the following little recipe for washing clothes, as penned by an anonymous Ontario pioneer woman.
Receet for washing clothes
1) Bild fire in back yard to het kettle of rain water.2) Set tubs so smoke won't blow in eyes if wind is pert.
3) Shave hole cake of lie soap in bilin water.
4) Sort things. Make 3 piles, 1 pile white, 1 pile cullord, 1 pile work britches and rags.
5) Stir some flour in cold water to smooth, then thin down with bilin water.
6) Rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, then bile, rub cullord but don't bile, just rench and starch.
7) Spread tea towels on grass.
8) Take white things out of kettle with broom-stick handle, then rench and starch.
9) Hang old rags on fence.
10) Pore rench water on flower bed.
11) Scrub porch with hot sopy water.
12) Turn tubs upside down.
13) Go put on a clean dress - smooth hair with side combs, brew cup of tea - set and rest and rock a spell and count blessings.
© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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And the survey winner is...
Farm & Country thanks all the readers who filled out surveys mailed to them between June and September, along with those who took time to complete forms at recent farm shows.Completed surveys were entered into a grand prize draw, and the winner was Caledon's Phillip Clarkson. Clarkson - who farms 500 acres of fruit, cash crops and hay - wins $1,000 simply for taking the time to fill in a few details on his farming operation.
The survey draw is ongoing. Check out the Farm & Country booth at upcoming farm shows for your entry survey. Reader surveys sent with the magazine are still eligible, too. Next draw will be held Feb. 5, 1999. The winner will be contacted by phone and/or mail. We appreciate your co-operation - and good luck.
© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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