A pheasant company with a history tracing back to 1945 will soon close its doors in southern Alberta.
The Canadian Pheasant Co. at Brooks, Alta., is wrapping up operations and is likely to close in the next several weeks, says general manager Nanette Weir.
The company hatches and raises pheasants for public and private release programs and also sells some for consumer tables. Its facility was designed to raise up to 200,000 pheasants per year, although it’s unclear whether that number has been raised there in recent years.
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The current hatchery, now owned and operated by the pheasant company, was established in the early 1980s by the Alberta government, which has been involved in pheasant supply and release since 1945.
The Brooks facility had several owners after it was privatized, most recently Ed Houck and a group of investors.
However, the province continued to fund an annual pheasant release program, with the Canadian Pheasant Co. supplying the birds.
Weir said last week that employees haven’t been given a specific date for closure, but they are now making plans to distribute pheasant hens to customers for spring breeding and will sell the rest. They are not hatching any new birds.
Houck did not return phone calls by press time, and Weir declined to discuss reasons for the business closure.
“It’s a decision the owners have made, that they’re going to close the doors,” she said.
The pheasant operation has struggled in the past when the provincial government considered ending its role in the pheasant release program.
Two years ago, funding was in jeopardy so a group of sportsmen formed Upland Birds Alberta to encourage continuation of the release program.
Ken Bailey, a volunteer with UBA, said the group agreed to handle the pheasant release and obtained 13,000 birds from the company. His group has agreed to handle the program again in 2013.
“Last year, to carry out the release program, we had to source birds, and those birds were sourced through the Canadian Pheasant Co., who have long been the supplier to Alberta’s pheasant release program, going back many years. But certainly there are other suppliers out there,” Bailey said.
“It’s unfortunate. I think everybody would have preferred the made-in-Alberta solution of the Canadian Pheasant Co. supplying birds to the program, but if they are unable to, we’re just going to have to look elsewhere.”
Bob Haysom, managing director of the Calgary chapter of Pheasants Forever, said Houck told him the company will be closing.
“It’s not the best news,” he said.
Pheasants Forever raises money to enhance and preserve upland bird habitat but it is not involved in pheasant release. However, the loss of a major pheasant producer could have an effect on bird populations and hunting opportunities.
“We suspect that there will be a lot of scrambling going on because the Canadian Pheasant Co. has been providing birds,” said Haysom.
“I think it will have some effect to Pheasants Forever but not a drastic effect, at least not right away. People will find birds.”
Michelle Gietz, economic development project co-ordinator for the County of Newell, said the region has long been known for the quality of its pheasant hunting and the Canadian Pheasant Co. played a role in that.
“They are really the largest releaser of birds in the province as far as I know, so if there is an issue there, that could have an impact in some way on our hunting industry.”
A 2011 report on pheasant hunting in the county pegged total expenditures by pheasant hunters at $1.75 million in 2010.
With spinoffs, it generates an estimated $9.8 million annually in economic impact, according to the study.
The 2010 Alberta government revenues from pheasant hunting activities totalled $754,803, including $215,186 in hunting licence purchases attributable to pheasant hunting.
