What's an Elk worth?

[Kingfisher]

I spoke with someone the other day that told me about their 4 Elk. All culls and of no real value after hearing their description. But after seeing pics of introduced Elk here on CT in Arkansas I wonder how you raise an Elk? What's it take? Over here near Fredricksburg they just free range on the "savanna". I hear they hurt your deer...they look cool though when their " good!"

 

[Aaron]

They eat very little hay over the winter, ton, maybe ton and half. You need 8' high page wire fence for your paddocks. Culls are meat price which is competitive to beef price in the right market. Bulls are worth good money for velvet antler, $36/lb last time I ever asked neighbor/cousin. When you get about 60 lbs of antler off a good bull, you start talking some serious money. I grew up with cousin's elk 1 mile to the southwest of me. He plans to get rid of them here in the future - just wants to crop. It will actually be odd not to hear the odd scream of a bull elk around here, when that day comes.

 

[Rafter S]

I used to feed at a local high fence ranch on weekends. They have cattle and a wide variety of exotics. They told me that before I worked there they had some elk, but got rid of them after a bull got too mean. He got after a 300lb mean man on a 4-wheeler. As the guy was trying to get away the elk was hooking the rack on back of the 4-wheeler and lifting the back end off of the ground. I don't know if that's typical behavior or not, but it would make me think long and hard about wanting any of them around.

 

[greybeard]

I spoke with someone the other day that told me about their 4 Elk. All culls and of no real value after hearing their description. But after seeing pics of introduced Elk here on CT in Arkansas I wonder how you raise an Elk? What's it take? Over here near Fredricksburg they just free range on the "savanna". I hear they hurt your deer...they look cool though when their " good!"

Fredricksburgh Texas? I didn't know they had elk that far East here in Texas.

 

[Rafter S]

I spoke with someone the other day that told me about their 4 Elk. All culls and of no real value after hearing their description. But after seeing pics of introduced Elk here on CT in Arkansas I wonder how you raise an Elk? What's it take? Over here near Fredricksburg they just free range on the "savanna". I hear they hurt your deer...they look cool though when their " good!"

Fredricksburgh Texas? I didn't know they had elk that far East here in Texas.

Maybe that's some red deer that escaped from a high fence place instead of elk?

 

[callmefence]

They run em through the auctions at Watson and Harper from time to time. I'd seen 500.00 to 3500.00.

They have fair amount of trouble with em through a long hot summer. They can take a little hot weather, but you get one of those 70 days over 100 summers. They don't do so.good

 

[dun]

I used to feed at a local high fence ranch on weekends. They have cattle and a wide variety of exotics. They told me that before I worked there they had some elk, but got rid of them after a bull got too mean. He got after a 300lb mean man on a 4-wheeler. As the guy was trying to get away the elk was hooking the rack on back of the 4-wheeler and lifting the back end off of the ground. I don't know if that's typical behavior or not, but it would make me think long and hard about wanting any of them around.

They do tend to get a bit testy and excitable during the rut. Even the Tule elk in california that see people all the time do. I bumped a herd from about 100 yards once and the bull started throwing mud with his feet, brush with his horns, bellering and stomping towards me. Fortunetly I was close to the truck and jumped in and hauled butt out of there. Didn;t even drop my fishing rod when I ran backwards as fast as I could.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I spoke with someone the other day that told me about their 4 Elk. All culls and of no real value after hearing their description. But after seeing pics of introduced Elk here on CT in Arkansas I wonder how you raise an Elk? What's it take? Over here near Fredricksburg they just free range on the "savanna". I hear they hurt your deer...they look cool though when their " good!"

Fredricksburgh Texas? I didn't know they had elk that far East here in Texas.

Big herd in Lufkin.

 

[Ojp6]

I got roped into hauling two bulls to Colorado for a guy one time. I was handed a check for $30,000 to give to the guy I was hauling them for. I don't know how far the high fence places mark them up but that would be an expensive shot to drop one of them. Probably cost $25,000 to shoot one of them.

The man I was hauling for said he was penning bulls to ship one day during rut and one hung his horn in the fence. He said the other ones killed him in less than two minutes. Another guy told me he had a customer shoot one way up on a ridge. Said it was still walking and they were getting ready to take another shot when a different bull saw it weakening and ran up and knocked it off the cliff. They say they will kill anything when they are in rut.

 

[Caustic Burno]

The herd in Lufkin has a pile of big Bulls all hanging together.
This place has thousands of acres under high fence.
So do these Bulls mark off territory during the rut and become buddies again when it is over.

 

[Ojp6]

The place where I picked the Bulls up had over 20,000 acres high fenced in North Dakota. They had around 300 Bulls in one bunch. They said they don't even fight all that much during rut unless one shows a sign of weakness. I would guess whenever one wants something new to breed there is a heck of a fight though.

When they are in rut the only thing the guy drove in the pen with them was an old pay loader. He used that to run them up and when he got them in the corral he would sort them using a big skid steer.