KITSCOTY, Alta. – Donna and Frank McAllister were issued game farm licence number 15 in 1985.
Since the eastern Alberta ranchers were one of the first farmers into the elk business 25 years ago, they’ve experienced the heady peaks and weathered the disappointing lows.
Despite the roller coaster ride, the McAllister family believes there is potential in elk.
“I think we’re through the worst of it,” said Frank, who is optimistic that a lower world supply of elk velvet antler and a steady demand will force prices higher.
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When the couple jumped into the new diversified agriculture business, elk seemed like a good alternative to traditional agriculture.
“In all fairness, we made a lot of money in elk,” he said.
“The first 10 to 15 years were like a gold mine.”
Elk velvet antler prices once topped $120 a pound, but often averaged $80 to $90 per lb.
It wasn’t unusual to see female elk trade at $20,000, young calves for $2,000 and trophy bull elk with 500 point scores fetch $50,000.
The discovery of chronic wasting disease ended the halcyon days for elk producers across the country.
Now if they don’t count the cost of fences and barns and don’t factor in depreciation, they can pretend they’re breaking even with their elk and hope things will improve.
“Velvet antler has been consumed for 1,000 years. It’s not going to quit in
2011,” said McAllister, who plans to tough it out for a while yet.
“It’s the last man standing. There’s been a hell of a pile of retraction,” he said.
He sees hope in velvet antler sales and sales of large trophy bull elk.
“The antler has always been the mainstay in elk,” said McAllister, who raises about 1,000 head, about 600 bulls and 170 breeding females and their calves.
Trophy bulls still fetch about $4,000 or more in some markets depending on the size of antler.
Until recently, the farm shipped elk with large antlers to hunt farms in the United States. The discovery of a wild deer with CWD 30 kilometres away from the ranch last year closed that market.
The United States has banned imports of elk from areas within a 40 km zone of a positive CWD test.
“I think eventually the U.S. will change that rule,” he said.
The family supplies elk to Saskatchewan hunt farms. They also keep elk on a farm in Saskatchewan in case the border to Saskatchewan closes as it did in 2001 for 18 months after the discovery of CWD in a farmed Alberta elk.
“As soon as you build an industry in someone else’s province, you’re asking for trouble.”
The family also raises bison on their 6,000 acres of owned and rented land. These days it’s the bison that pay the bills for the McAllisters and their three farming sons and their families.
Despite the poor return for elk, McAllister supports the industry.
“I’m more in love with the elk than the boys. If everything is clicking in elk, you make huge money.”
All about elk:
- Elk are also called wapiti, a Native North American word that means “light-coloured deer”
- Bull elk lose their antlers each March. They begin to regrow in May in preparation for the late-summer breeding season
- Elk antler velvet has been used in the Orient for medicinal purposes for thousands of years
- During early stages of growth, the antlers are very sensitive and can be susceptible to injury, which causes abnormal growth
- Younger elk are usually last to shed their antlers
