PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. – A Manitoba elk grower believes changes are needed to remove the “castration band” from his industry.
With the value of elk antlers in a slump, it’s clear to people like Peter Kalden that the industry could stagnate unless there are changes. The elk grower from St. Martin, Man., said the industry is hampered by barriers to interprovincial elk trading in Western Canada.
He also thinks Manitoba should look at whether hunting of farmed elk should be allowed.
“For the sake of the industry, we should not settle for peanuts,” said Kalden, during the annual meeting of the Manitoba Elk Growers Association, held here Jan. 30. “We should free ourselves from the castration band.”
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More open trade is needed, Kalden said, to improve market opportunities for the province’s elk growers. Elk trade is now restricted due partly to concerns about disease moving from one province to another.
Kalden also worries that the export of Canadian farmed elk into the United States could end if American elk growers aren’t given a chance to sell their live animals into Canada. He bases that concern on the present troubles with beef.
“You have to have open trade,” Kalden said. “If we don’t have open borders, this industry is going to get stymied.”
He qualified his comments, however, by noting that the border should not be thrown wide open to the import of farmed elk from anywhere in the U.S. But American states along the border should be able to export into Canada, he said, provided they meet guidelines being developed.
The Canadian Venison Council hopes to see protocols in place some time this year to allow elk to move between prairie provinces and across the international border. The protocols will include an identification system that could trace each elk to its place of origin and measures to deal with disease transmission.
The capture of wild elk to enhance Manitoba’s stock of farmed elk has been a sensitive issue. As the controversy subsides, the Manitoba Elk Growers Association believes the province will consider allowing farmed elk to be hunted in Manitoba.
That sentiment is shared by the Canadian Venison Council.
“I’ll guarantee you right now that there will be hunting behind wire in Manitoba and Alberta within five years,” said Ian Thorleifson, executive director of the venison council. “It just makes perfectly good sense. There’s no reason not to do it.”
Hunting of farmed elk is opposed by many naturalists, as well as animal rights groups.
