Antler recovery base

Press, 13 November 1981, Page 16

Antler recovery base

Antler recovery is the backbone of deer farming in the Soviet Union, according to Arkady Kudrya, of the Novosti Press Agency. In Oriental countries live antlers of red and dapple deer have always been considered a most valuable medicine, he says. As Chinese merchants were keen on buying deer antlers, the Russians at first started hunting red deer, and then, beginning from the mid-19th century, domesticating and breeding them in' the South Altai (the south of western Siberia). In the Soviet Union the first red deer breeding state farms were set up in 1924. At present there are about 20 farms breeding red and dapple deer in various regions of the country — in the Altai, Kazakhstan, and the Primorye territory. Red and dapple deer also provide good meat and valuable skins for producing suede. However, the profit from antlers, cut off annually, is much higher than that from meat and skin production. Antlers are the main produce of this industry, and only they compensate for the significant cost of deer breeding. Deer breeding in the Soviet Union has a good scientific background. The diseases and treatment of these animals have been closely examined and new rational forms of deer keeping as well as various ways of preserving raw antlers for export or use in the pharmaceutical industry of the Soviet Union have been developed. The Talitsky State Farm

in the Altai specialises in red deer breeding. They have a grazing area of about 60 square kilometres. The location is hilly and overgrown with birch trees, aspens and larches. The territory of the “deer park" is surrounded with a two-metre-high fence. There are 2200 state farm deer supervised by two teams of deer herders, each nine-men strong. They are expected to look after the animals, to feed them in the winter, to repair the fence, which is 120 kilometres long, and to cut off the antlers, which is their most important duty. The antler-cutting campaign usually starts in the first half of June. Only a deer-farmer with great experience can flawlessly select a deer with ripe antlers. On the cutting day the herders start working very early, at five in the morning. It is important to complete the operation by 9 o’clock, because the deer are quiet in the morning, and it is much easier to drive them into the cutting machine. Such an early cutting makes it possible to begin the preservation process the same day. The operation itself, when the animal is caught in the machine, takes three to four seconds. The state farm’s daily production in that period amounts to 35 to 40 pairs of antlers. The state farm manager, Ivan Sabyanin, explains that they start cutting antlers when the animals are two-years-old. The eight to 12-year-old deer give maximum production. The average production o! one deer is 6.6 kg of rav

antlers. According to current Soviet prices, one kilo o: antlers costs from 30 to 121 roubles, depending on theii quality. If the antlers arc overripe and begin to harden they are considered seconc or third rate, so the state farm loses hundreds of roubles. The cutters have a special register in which they write down information on every pair of antlers — theii weight, breadth (measured ir 10 to 12cm from the cutting place) and length. The comparative analysis of the annual register entries makes it possible to estimate the productivity of every deer and to improve deer breeding. Most mountainous Altai farms preserve antlers according to the so-called Chin-

ese method. The antlers are boiled many times, and put into a "heater” between boilings, when they are subjected to dry steaming at temperatures of up to 80 degrees centigrade. Then the antlers are dried in a “wind chamber” for 40 to 50 days. When the process of preserving is completed, the antlers that have lost 60 per cent of their original weight are ready to be used in the pharmaceutical industry. The farms are paid on acceptance of their produce by the Medexport representatives, or by experts in pharmaceutical factories producing Pantocrin. Pantocrin, patented in the Soviet Union, is recognised as a highly effective tonic. It can be used for the treatment of many neuroses and cardiovascular disorders.