Velvet antlers sprout on one of the elk at Regal Point Elk Farm near Oxenden

Friday, May 7, 2004, page B1
www.owensoundsuntimes.com

Hopes for Horns of Plenty

The elk farming business crashed just as the Robinsons got into it. Now they're trying to find their own ways to get it off the ground again. Bill Henry reports ...

Just as Eric and Dale Robinson invested in the elk business, the market fell apart. 

Breeding stock prices slipped severely following an outbreak of chronic wasting disease. The scare restricted live sales within Canada and across the U.S. border.

Semen from quality bulls at one time could be expected to generate close to $1 million in sales during the animal's lifetime. Those sales almost disappeared. No one would pay top artificial insemination dollars to raise animals that might end up selling as meat instead of breeding stock.

Perhaps more significantly, Robinson said recently, the lucrative Asian market for velvet elk antler shrank overnight.

"Every door that I thought I had open to me was suddenly closed," Robinson said recently at his Regal Point Elk Farm near Oxenden.

Since then, the mad cow disease crisis that began more than a year ago has completely closed the U.S. border to ruminants, including live elk.

"I got in with the intention of having a fun time and the world closed down around me. So I had to look at what I could do that couldn't be taken away from me."

Used as a medicinal ingredient throughout Asia for 2,000 years and now becoming more and more available in North America as a health and food supplement, the unique annual harvest from bull elk is the fledgling Canadian elk industry's most valuable product.

Chinese and Korean authorities have kept their borders closed to the product since the CWD outbreak.

"They won't even meet with us. It gets smuggled into Korea and China and the net result is that the price that's paid to producers is the lowest it's been in a long time."

Robinson is now convinced the solution lies right at home in an untapped Ontario market.

Since last fall, he has been developing a new partnership, marketing strategy and head-office style distribution plan for Ontario produced and processed velvet antler capsules to be available under the brand name CanEVA Health Corporation.

Made entirely from the crushed inner core of elk antler harvested painlessly during the velvet stage of growth, the capsules are believed to relieve pain from arthritis and osteoporosis. Other benefits, according to Regal Point's promotional materials, include enhanced athletic performance, increased physical strength, stronger immune system, better blood circulation and increased testosterone in men and estrogen in women.

Within three years, the roughly 10,000 pounds of velvet antler harvested on about 40 Ontario elk farms could all be consumed in Ontario, potentially a $3-million annually to start, Robinson believes.

"Ultimately, it's going to be a good business. Ultimately Ontario will not be able to produce enough (velvet antler) based upon current number of farms in Ontario," he said.

"And I'm looking forward to the day because as soon as we get to that point that will stimulate sales of breeding stock. That will stimulate the whole industry to grow and what a wonderful accomplishment that will be if an when we get there."

The mad cow crisis is easing and an industry inspection plan is dealing with CWD. There hasn't been a new case on a Canadian farm in two years. Inevitably international borders will open again to live elk and velvet antler, Robinson said.

"Those things should correct themselves and if and when that does occur, we're in for a fun time."

Robinson is relying on both his previous business success and his new industry credibility developed over the last three years to bring Ontario producers on side. He's now president of the Ontario Elk Breeders Association. His wife Dale is the association's secretary and association treasurer Barbara Kay and David Harper, her partner in Stoney Point Elk Farm near Guelph, are partners in the new CanEVA venture.

During his 32 years with SPI Industries, the Shallow Lake plastics company his father purchased for $8,000 in 1972, Robinson led the firm to international prominence manufacturing playground equipment under subsidiaries on several continents for McDonald's Restaurants, among other customers.

By 1991, when SPI sold all but the Canadian company, the global group also had companies in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, The Middle East and The United Kingdom.

Although Robinson began investing in the elk business three years ago hoping for "a lazy man's farming lifestyle," he's instead facing the industry's current challenges with the same drive he put behind SPI.

"It's a matter of getting the most out of whatever you're trying to accomplish," he said. "There's an opportunity here to change an industry and make it worthwhile for everybody, including myself."

Following the lead of several Quebec elk farms, at first Robinson planned to simply process and package his own product and sell it from his farm a mile south of Oxenden.

Four area pharmacies, two in Wiarton and one each in Lion's Head and Sauble Beach, now carry the capsules he had processed under the Regal Point Elk Farm label recently.

He now hopes to market all of Ontario's velvet antler under the proposed CanEVA label, while also labeling individuals farms as a source for producers who want that.

"What we're trying to accomplish here requires an element of co-operation from the whole industry and that's going to be hard to pull off," Robinson said. "It makes no sense for each of us to have our own brand and compete with 10 different products for the same market."

There are already several companies in Western Canada selling velvet antler products and in sales in Quebec have reached $5 million annually.

"That would consume pretty much all the elk produced in Quebec. You don't have to worry any more about Korea and China and all those kinds of things anymore, and that's what I want to accomplish in Ontario."

The Velvet Touch

No other animal tissue grows anywhere near as quickly as elk antler, the president of the Ontario Elk Breeder's Association said recently.

A good mature bull can grow 50 pounds of antler in 80 days. "It's incredible. No other animal can touch it in terms of growth rate," said Eric Robinson. He and his wife Dale operate Regal Point Elk Farm near Oxenden, where two-year-old bulls last year averaged almost 15 points of antler.

Velvet antler sold for as much as $100 per pound before an outbreak of chronic wasting disease closed much of the Asian market three years ago.

Antler has been used for 2,000 years as an important balancing ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. It's a natural source of all eight essential amino acids, among a long list of other ingredients.

The product is consumed in capsule form and believed to relieve the pain of arthritis and osteoporosis. It may also increase physical strength, boost the immune system, reduce fatigue, lubricate joints and improve mental sharpness and alertness, among other health benefits.

It's the most profitable aspect of the elk business, which depends also on sales of quality breeding stock, bull semen, bulls for hunting and meal sales.

No other commercial livestock industry produces an annual harvest similar to elk velvet antler, Robinson said. If the antler was not harvested during the velvet stage, it would lose its velvet covering and eventually fall off in the spring.

Eric Robinson with his antler velvet capsules

"It's very important that people understand the difference between between horn and antler. Horn stays with an animal for life, antler falls off every year. We're not killing an animal to harvest a product. This is a renewable resource, which is what makes the elk industry so attractive."

Robinson began taking the capsules, which cost $35 for 60, about three years ago after a day-long bike ride left him with a lingering pain in his hip.

"Within a couple of months the problem went away. Maybe it would have gotten better anyway."

He's continued to take the recommended two daily capsules ever since and believes it's boosted his immune system and limited illness to just one cold in the last two years.

Robinson recently began marketing his Regal Point Elk Farm velvet antler capsules in Wiarton area and is developing a new partnership which he hopes will eventually create an Ontario market for some 10,000 pounds of antler produced annually in the province.