HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1995-03-08, Page 13Second section - March 8, 1995
Red deer - more than an alternative
The Heyink's of Hensall have a Targe herd which they started about five years ago
By Fred Groves
T -A staff
HENSALL - Drive north down
Highway 4 just past Hensall and
you will pass one of the most pic-
turesque farms around.
There are acres and acres of im-
maculate wire fencing spread
across the Heyink farm surrounded
by a modern brick house and a very
well kept steel barn.
This farm is the home of a some-
what unusual type of livestock, the
red deer. Allan and his brother Ray
Heyink are owners of the Huron
Red Deer Farm.
About five years ago they started
to raise the deer and it has become
more than an alternative way of
•
farming from their huge poultry op-
eration.
"It was a number of years ago
when the GAAT talks were on,"
said Allan of when they started
their herd. "There was a booth by a
group that was selling deer. I just
picked up a pamphlet, read it over
at home and wrote back to them."
The herd has certainly grown and
what may have started out as a curi-
ous venture has grown into one
with a very bright future.
"We only started out with nine
animals, eight females and a stag,"
recalls Allan.
Every type of deer has its own
lingo for male and female. While
we are used to calling them buck
and does, the red deer variety are
known as hinds (female) and stags
(male).
At first the toughest part of the
new business was to find buyers.
Getting the word out that you have
a new product on the market is
sometimes tough.
"Up until last year we didn't have
much of a stock to sell. We sold
some privately," said Ray.
He noted that last year a co-
operative was formed which is
called the Great North Marketing
Co -Operative. Through this or-
ganization, the Heyink's shipped 23
stags last December.
"They are marketing venison,
breeding stock and velvet. We've
joined that co-operative. There's
about 35 farmers in Ontario," said
Ray.
A lot of farmers are getting into
alternative methods of making a
living from their land. Some try os-
triches and emus, even lamas, but
the Heyink's decided on deer.
"We were getting out of crop-
ping, the used to run about 600
acres. It sounded like a pretty good
future. It's the only red meat en-
dorsed for heart patients," said Al-
lan.
Their barn is divided up into sev-
eral pens. Right now the stags are
playfully butting heads to de-
termine superiority, just like any
other deer or goats would do.
However, when an observer
watches the stags butt heads, these
deer seem to be a little bigger than
the ones you would see scampering
around the Pinery Park near Grand
Bend.
When the Heyink's breed their
deer in the fall they don't seem to
follow what other deer breeders are
doing.
"There are some that keep related
stags but we don't do that," said Al-
lan. "Right now we've been buying
stags and they're part elk. They
have a much bigger frame."
"One guy (stag) is about 25 per-
cent (elk) and the other'is about 50
percent. They're a heavy meat an-
imal," said Ray.
Ray and Allan are used to taking
care of chickens. Broilers are in the
barn for as little as six weeks, the
red deer in comparison are around
for 18 months before they gets
shipped out.
"That's the ideal time, 18 months.
If you keep them over the winter
time they're not going to gain
weight. We'll feed them all winter
for nothing," said Ray.
The red deer have wild character-
istics like not eating that much dur-
ing the winter but getting close
enough to them and being able to
feed them out of a bucket shows •
signs of domestication.
After five years it doesn't seem as
though these farmers are going to
give up on deer farming.
Some of the deer in the Heyink herd in Hensall.
Allan Heylnk, of Hensall, and his brother Ray have been breeding red deer for four years. They They may be tame but red deer feel the need to determine who the dominate male is.
are tame enough to be pail -fed.
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