It was just what the doctor ordered for Saskatchewan’s ailing elk industry.
After spending two hours at their annual convention listening to yet more grim news about chronic wasting disease, elk producers were in dire need of some good news.
And Robert Lundquist was there to give it to them.
The owner of Diamond 7 Meats of Maidstone, Sask., told elk producers about his plans to build a $7 million multi-species, federally approved processing plant that would handle 2,500 elk a year.
He described a lucrative and growing export market for naturally raised elk meat.
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And he told the producers they were ideally situated to take advantage of that market.
“You produce a superior meat product in elk venison,” he said.
“We know the world will take it if we can produce and supply it consistently.”
Lundquist has been working on the project for close to a year and is now working with engineers and designers on a plan to take to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for approval.
The plant will be paid for through a combination of private and government investment, and if all goes according to plan, it will be taking in stock in 14 months.
The plant would be capable of processing 10,000 head a year, including 5,000 bison, 2,500 elk and 2,500 deer and organic cattle, and would be tailored to meet Canadian, American and European standards.
The price of venison in Europe has increased by 10 percent in the last month, and will likely rise by another 10 to 20 percent by mid-summer, driven by reduced domestic supplies and the health problems in the European cattle industry, said Lundquist.
The excitement generated by Lundquist’s talk was evident as passers-by stopped to buy elk sausage or chat at Diamond 7’s convention trade show booth.
Some asked questions about the project, some gave him advice and all of them wished him luck.
“This will be just an absolute marvelous thing to have happen,” enthused elk breeder Clair Ziolkowski of Rosthern, Sask.
All producers have animals that don’t produce sufficient velvet and don’t meet the standards for hunt farms, he said. Now, they end up in his or his friends’ freezers, but that’s not sustainable as the industry grows.
The prospect of having a fully equipped slaughter plant providing a predictable and reliable market is like a breath of fresh air for the industry, he said.
“It just gives us another alternative,” Ziolkowski said.
“We can then make choices — velvet, hunt farm, meat market — and ride through the difficult times by marketing through different channels.”
Lundquist said the positive response at the trade show is typical of what he has been hearing over the past few months, not only from elk producers, but also from bison ranchers and organic beef producers.
“We have a big part of the industry on side with us,” he said in an interview between selling sausages and answering farmers’ questions.
Earlier, during his speech to the convention, Lundquist said the number one thing he needs from producers is a consistent product.
Industry standards must be established for such things as age, size and feed to take to buyers around the world.
Standards could be put in place so that if young bulls don’t produce a certain amount of antler in the first two years, they would be designated for the meat trade, along with barren females.
Producers also need to develop a common collection or gathering system to make it easier to buy animals.
It’s also important that the elk be as “natural” as possible, because buyers in Europe are prepared to pay a premium price for grass-fed game.
“We don’t want to pour grain into them to make it taste like beef.” Lundquist thinks about 10 percent of the elk herd would be suitable for the meat trade, which works out to 4,000 animals in Saskatchewan and Alberta. However, the supply would also be affected by returns from meat versus antler velvet.
Currently, elk fetches about $3.50 a pound hanging weight, which works out to $1,400 on a 400 lb. carcass.
“When the velvet becomes valuable again, which it will, the meat will not look that lucrative, even if we’re paying $5 a pound.”
