North America Deer Breeders

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Alan_Stables]Alan Stables
Even though New Zealand deer breeders are responsible for about one-half of the farmed deer in the world, North American deer breeders and farmers make a large contribution towards satisfying world demand for deer velvet and venison, or deer meat.
While New Zealand deer breeders focus on raising the European species known as red deer, North American deer breeders raise primarily whitetail deer and elk, also called wapiti, which are native to their area. Whitetail deer and elk were hunted to near extinction at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Thanks to active conservation and sometimes controversial repopulation efforts, both species of native deer have rebounded in the wild.
Pioneer settlers in the United States once farmed elk in the late 1800s in the state of Pennsylvania, in the far eastern portion of the country. Today, wild elk are found primarily in the western United States near the Rocky Mountains. In the early 1900s the U.S. federal government advocated elk farming, as shown by a 1910 publication of the Department of Agriculture, but the deer farming industry as we know it now did not develop until the 1970s when global demand, especially from Asia, developed for deer velvet. Deer velvet is the term given to the fuzzy skin covering that nourishes developing deer antlers. Male whitetail and elk shed their antlers every year and grow a new rack that is covered with deer velvet. Deer velvet has proven therapeutic value when consumed by humans.
New Zealand deer breeders pioneered the modern deer farming industry in the 1960s and 1970s. North American farmers and ranchers established their own deer farms for whitetails and elk based upon New Zealand deer management principles and began exporting deer velvet to Asian markets. However, outbreaks of tuberculosis among whitetail and elk herds in the 1980s nearly destroyed the North American elk industry.
Determined deer breeders formed the North American Elk Breeders Association and the Canadian Venison Council in the early 1990s. Through major efforts, the group eliminated tuberculosis from their herds and lands. To prevent further health problems Canadian deer breeders defined the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farmed Cervids, another term for deer species. With a host of major problems behind them, North American deer breeders are now focusing on producing fine bloodlines of whitetail and elk breeding stock which currently demand premium prices due to their quality.
Alan B. Stables is a freelance writer on alternative agriculture, has organized alternative agriculture events and has also been a guest speaker in Brazil, China, Egypt, Italy, Latvia and Spain, on how to market agricultural produce for maximum returns.
His writing includes topics such as [http://www.ealpacafarming.com/]alpaca farming, [http://www.deerfarming.org/]deer farming and other alternative farming species.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?North-America-Deer-Breeders&id=6513101] North America Deer Breeders