(For a special report on hunt farming, see pages 78-79.)
MAIDSTONE, Sask. — Rick Alsager began raising elk 25 years ago when he decided that grain farming cost too much and brought in too little.
He began fencing acres and over the years built up an elk breeding and velvet operation that has supported his family and given his 20-something sons a chance at a good farming future.
“It’s made it possible for us to be a third generation farm,” he said.
One of the bright spots — and the area of greatest potential — is the hunt farm they set up on wild land that they own. They fenced the coulees and brush and for a fee, hunters, mostly wealthy Americans, can track and shoot a big elk bull.
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Other hunt farm operators in Saskatchewan offer elk, deer and bison shoots.
Alsager said the hunt business brings in 25 percent of the farm’s income. It’s a business his sons enjoy operating and want to build.
But the hunt farm opportunity that the Alsager family and other Saskatchewan producers have taken is denied to farmers in Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.
Even in Saskatchewan, the most rural prairie province and the only one where hunt farms are legal, the industry has drawn outrage from a wide array of groups, including animal welfare advocates and traditional hunters.
The issue of hunt farms has driven a wedge through segments of society, creating vociferous opposition on one side and frustrated annoyance on the other as spiritual, moral and economic values collide.
Deer and elk producers are often exasperated at critics of game farms and hunt farms, believing that they have never visited an operation to see what it’s like. They think these critics are misrepresenting the industry with false images and incorrect information, and that the public and governments are making decisions and regulations for the industry without understanding its reality.
Legal restrictions and prohibitions weigh down an industry that promoters say would otherwise be a booming business, a rare money-maker in the beleaguered prairie farm economy.
“The over-regulations and restrictions that government puts on us is really curtailing the growth of the industry,” Alsager said.
He thinks things will get worse as governments begin taking a hard look at an industry they have scarcely noticed before.
Manitoba government MLAs recently made it clear they don’t intend to legalize hunt farms, and Alberta’s agriculture minister has told elk and deer producers in his province he has no plans to allow hunt farms.
In Saskatchewan, some groups are calling on the provincial government to impose tougher standards for hunt farm operations.
“If you create enough restrictions you can kill it, because it won’t be economically viable,” Alsager said.
There is no direct legal threat to hunt farms in Saskatchewan, just as there is no direct opportunity to get into the business in other provinces.
But learning to thread their way through the maze of ethical and regulatory fences that have been raised around the hunt farm industry will be a skill all hunt farm operators and proponents will need to master.
