Farmers Craving a Venison Craze : These Docile Deer Are Not Pets, but Fodder

MILLBROOK, N.Y. â€”  On a windy hillside above their home, Eliot and Susanne Clarke are surrounded by broad-antlered stags and wide-eyed does, some spotted, some russet or smoky with fat, white bellies, all jostling for their morning ration of corn.

“Hello, Bighorn,� Susanne Clarke says, scattering kernels as about 150 goat-sized fallow deer crowd around. “Here, Moose-Nose.�

Although they are docile and curious, following the Clarkes around the field like a pack of puppies, the deer are not pets.

They are livestock, meat on the hoof, cattle for the calorie-counter, the health-conscious, the gourmet.

Money in the Bank

By Eliot Clarke’s calculations, and those of a small but growing number of other American deer farmers, they are money in the bank.

Raising deer for slaughter is big business in West Germany, New Zealand and Britain, where venison is a common food. But it’s new in the United States.

The Clarkes, and a few others in upstate New York where farmland is plentiful and major metropolitan markets are close, expect U.S. demand for venison to soar as the tasty, lean meat is promoted by chefs, diet centers and importers. They plan to be ready to supply the meat as well as the breeding stock for other farmers they expect to get into the business.

“Everyone says venison is the meat of the future,� said Clarke, surveying the rocky fields and wooded ravines of his 800-acre Hudson Valley farm. “It’s only 3% fat, it is very low in cholesterol and it’s one of the few agricultural products where the demand exceeds the supply.

“It’s one of the more economical forms of farming,� he said. “There’s almost no labor. It takes 20 minutes a day to feed them--corn, hay and some horse grain--and once a year we round them up, give them their shots, separate the bucks from the does.�

New Zealand Major Source

“Our competition is mainly from New Zealand,� said Josef von Kerckerinck, who claims to have the largest deer farm in North America. He raised more than 1,000 animals last year on 600 acres of his 5,000-acre Lucky Star Ranch in Chaumont, near Watertown and the Canadian border.

In New Zealand, where the government promotes the business, there are nearly 2,000 deer farmers. They sell mostly to Germany, which claims the world’s highest annual per-capita consumption of venison at more than a pound per person. Frozen New Zealand meat is also the main source of venison for American restaurants.

“But in New Zealand, they raise red deer, which originally were raised for their antlers for the aphrodisiac market,� Von Kerckerinck said. His fallow deer taste better, he said.

Von Kerckerinck founded the North American Deer Farmers Assn. to help others, like the Clarkes, start deer farms. There are only 10 members now, but he noted that the New Zealand Deer Assn., of which he is also a member, has grown from 12 to 1,200 members in nine years.

Von Kerckerinck grew up in a West German castle, complete with moat, which had been in the family for 500 years. He worked at banking, advertising and beef cattle farming before he came to the United States to raise deer in 1978.

Roots Traced to Mayflower

Clarke, who traces his ancestors to the Mayflower, is a Harvard Business School graduate and a former senior vice president of Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. His wife was in the White House press office under Presidents Nixon and Ford. They live in a 1758 Flemish-style mansion furnished with elegant antiques and trophies from African safaris.

They say that, compared to other types of agriculture, deer farming requires a relatively modest capital investment and little overhead and labor. The economics are far more attractive than raising cattle, horses or sheep.

“You can run deer on a small piece of bad land and make money,� Susanne Clarke said.

For someone who already has land, Clarke said, the initial investment is mainly for breeding stock, a simple shelter, and fencing--sturdy eight-foot fences to keep out wild deer and predators. Von Kerckerinck lost 130 fawns to coyotes one year.

“I have $40,000 in fences and $15,000 in shelter,� said Clarke, who has about 160 deer on 130 fenced acres, 2 1/2 years after he started his herd.

Prices for breeding stock vary. Clarke hopes to sell does for $450 each. Stags cost up to $3,000 each, although one can service 12 to 30 does.

“You can feed seven deer for one cow,� Von Kerckerinck said. “The cow will give you one calf, which you will sell in six months for $250 if you’re lucky. The seven deer will give you maybe six fawns, which after 18 months will bring $1,500.�

Leaner, Less Fat

New Zealand researchers found that deer gain almost twice the lean meat per acre as cattle, and produce half the fat. K. R. Drew, who conducted the research, said deer farming was about three times as profitable as sheep or cattle ranching, in terms of total gross margins.

Clarke said he will have built his herd to the size he wants it and will start slaughtering and selling meat this summer. Von Kerckerinck started selling carcasses to gourmet restaurants in 1980. He sold 160 this year and expects to have 230 to sell next year, at about $250 a carcass. He sells to about 30 restaurants, mostly in New York City.

“In Germany, the per-capita consumption of venison is 1 1/2 pounds a year,� Von Kerckerinck said. “Here, it’s not even in the hundredths of ounces yet. But if 50,000 restaurants in the country served just one venison meal every other day during the six months of winter, that’s 1,125 tons of venison.�

Advertising Push Planned

He said the New Zealand Deer Assn. plans to export 30,000 tons of venison to the United States. “They’re going to advertise heavily--and that’s going to be good for us. We’ll be ahead because we have the local market, we have a fresh, American-made product.�

Peter Duenkelsbuehler, who raises 500 fallow deer in Moravia in central New York, said he left Germany eight years ago because he couldn’t find the right property there. He said about 2,000 deer farms have started in Germany in the last 10 years.

“One of our goals is to show the agricultural industry (how) to raise something other than dairy cows,� Duenkelsbuehler said. “This is an area where the small family farm can survive. This we will prove.�