Antlers As A Source of Deer Farming Revenue

The antlers of a deer are a wonderful byproduct generated on a deer farming venture. Since the dawn of time deer have been hunted for both the venison, and the many uses of the antlers, which have been found to be useful in a wide variety of ways.

Each spring, the male deer, called stags, buck or bulls (depending on the species) will grow*a set of antlers. During the growth phase they are soft and filled with blood vessels. The antler is covered with velvet to protect the growing antler from damage. When they are fully grown, the blood vessels constrict and die off. The antler hardens and dies, and the velvet is rubbed off by the male. This stage is usually reached at the beginning of the rut. The antlers are then dropped in the early winter, after the rut. By dropping them, the males can conserve energy during the cold winter months. Each year the antlers will grow a little larger than in the previous year.

Usually the antlers are symmetrical, and the tines grow straight up, out of the beam. There are of course always deer whose antlers are asymmetrical. The antlers of different species take on different formations. The moose has large flattened ones, and other antlers can be cylindrical and thin. They can have from 1 to 8 tines or spikes on each side. Different species have varying sizes and shapes. The antlers are all however made of the same substance: keratin (which is the same substance our hair and fingernails are made of) and bone.

Antlers have been used for many varying things through the centuries:

• They are displayed as wall-mounted trophies after a hunt

• They are used to make furniture, especially for use in trophy rooms, bars and to create a point of interest in a room.

• Even as little as a century ago, antlers were used to create buttons, gun handles, knife handles, spoons and other utensils.

• They were used as a baking ingredient until the use of chemical ingredients in cakes became widespread. "Hirschhorn Salz" (antler salt - finely ground antlers) was used in Germany to help biscuits to rise.

• In large parts of Asia, the finely ground antlers are used as an aphrodisiac, and in traditional medicine.

• Antler velvet - not the velvet that is rubbed off the antler, but the growing antler, with no signs of calcification - are used widely in Asian medicine to cure a number of diseases, especially in aiding blood circulation and volume.

• In centuries past, they were used to make tools and weapons.

By researching all the avenues open to you, you are sure to find a valuable resource where your deer farming venture will benefit from marketing the antlers.

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