PEACE RIVER, Alta. – In 2000, Dave and Rhonda Kehler traded their beef cattle for elk.
Tired of the cattle industry’s feast or famine cycles, the couple wanted something more secure.
They weren’t counting on the dramatic drop in elk velvet prices that pushed hundreds of producers out of the business, but they believed there was a future in elk and began buying herds and fences from producers who were leaving the profession.
“We saw an opportunity to buy the animals, move them into the meat market and keep the better bulls. We would buy the whole herd and send what we didn’t want for slaughter,” Dave Kehler said.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
In 2003, the Kehlers sold their farm at Niton Junction, Alta., and moved north to Peace River, an area they believe is suited to raising elk. They leased 5,200 acres of pasture for grazing and another 1,000 acres for hay and went to work.
In four years the family built 46 kilometres of elk fence. At the farm’s peak, 2,000 head of bull elk roamed the vast area of previously logged land that was beginning to revert back to forest.
“It was overwhelming when we took it on. We had to do so much so fast,” Kehler said.
Today, with the price of elk velvet beginning to creep up from $10-$12 a pound to $25-$30, the future is again looking bright for elk producers.
“At $25 a lb. we can keep our head above water. We can stay at it,” he said.
The task of harvesting antlers begins in mid-May. For six weeks Dave and Rhonda start work at 9 p.m. and work through the night until morning, when the weather is cooler.
On weekends their three children help by bringing in the animals, putting them through the specialized handling equipment and hauling the velveted antlers to the large refrigerated trailer to keep them frozen before they’re sold.
After the velvet harvest ends the task of making hay begins, or if the weather is poor, like this year, making round bale silage.
Last year, they made about 2,000 bales and bought another 4,000. With the herd down to about 1,400 animals this year, they need fewer bales.
Kehler said elk eat about two-thirds the amount of feed as beef cattle. He counts on three bales of hay for each bull for the year. In the winter they put out about 80 bales at a time, which last four days.
Unlike cattle there isn’t much that can’t make money on an elk, he said. Each year the bulls grow antlers that are sold.
Animals that don’t have a good rack of antlers are sold for meat. When the animal is killed for meat the two ivories, or incisor-type teeth, are pulled and sold to the craft market for jewelry.
Good hard antler sheds can fetch $300 to $2,000.
The buttons, or stumps, left on the animal’s head after velveting will fall off during the summer and can fetch $2 per lb. from the craft market for making buckles and art objects.
Family members keep their eyes to the ground throughout the year looking for the fist-size buttons. Sometimes they return from the field with their pockets and jacket hoods stuffed with buttons. This year they collected enough buttons to buy a new quad.
Once the animals are past their prime they are sold to a hunt farm for up to $2,000.
“Out of all agriculture they’re the only animals that increase in value as they get older,” Kehler said.
Despite the earlier roller coaster ride of high and low prices, he believes the elk business has levelled out and producers left in the business have a good future.
“Elk have a place in the ag business. There will be a good demand as long as there is a good meat demand.”
