The Wild Side of Life

Yearning for a walk, better yet a taste, on the wild side of life? Well Coyote Creek Deer Company, in Ballinafad, offers an opportunity that just might whet your appetite.

Located about a quarter of a mile north of the Ballinafad General Store on Trafalgar Road North (on the Erin Township side of the community), Coyote Creek Deer Company is not your ordinary farm-ranch piece of property!

The ‘Deer’ appellation is a wee bit of a misnomer, as both deer and elk cavort – perhaps meander might be a better description, until certain times of the year when cavorting definitely takes place on Bonnie Walker’s 66 acres of farm and bushland where horses and cattle once roamed.

Bonnie and her late husband Dave owned and operated the Ballinafad General Store, from 1983 until 1993, having moved to Ballinafad from Hamilton in 1977.

Her partner in the Coyote Creek Deer Company, Dan McNiven, ventured into the area in 1990 from Calgary. An Aircraft Maintenance Engineer who had either the fortune -or misfortune, depending on your view to work with ‘Bunny’ Ward and the ill-fated Wardair. Dan was offered a job with Air Canada and relocated to Ontario.

A friendship developed and the duo began looking at ways to make proper use of the farmland as a money making venture into their respective retirement years. Ostrich ranching was considered –an enterprise operating in a number of Canadian venues but rejected, basically because of our intemperate winters and the cost of feeding and housing these somewhat erratic creatures.

The conjoining of deer and elk (of the same genetic species) for both meat and powdered antler bromides, combined with the suddenly burgeoning back to nature naturopathic tendencies of our obviously culture conscious society, was an opportunity Bonnie and Dan had the guts to delve into.

Their herd, a combination of Scottish Red Deer and North American Elk (known by native Canadians as Wapiti because of their white rump), ironically originated in 1996 in New Zealand.

At present, Bonnie and Dan have 98 animals on the farm, consisting of 54 breeding deer females, 34 calves and 10 elk bulls.

Visitors are both encouraged and welcome to feed the animals through the various fenced in areas. Otherwise, the animals are allowed to roam free on the property, foraging at leisure, but oats, barley and hay augment their diet.

Deer and elk shed their antlers, as we would change our clothes in different seasons, Mother Nature decrees that this should happen in the spring. The antler dropping is eased at Coyote Creek Deer Company with the use of a freezing method – much like a trip to the dentist- that causes no pain to the animals.

A Brantford pharmaceutical company takes the antlers, grinds them down and produces the finished product, in powdered form.

International buyers, mainly Asians, from Korea, Taiwan and China are regular visitors to the farm and herbal health store outlets searching for the product which has been recorded as helping arthritis sufferers, migraine headache sufferers and is also reputed to accentuate and elevate the libido consciousness of men who might be somewhat diminished in this particular area.

Meat from the older stags is also sold and McNiven notes the health value from venison. "It is fat-freer than beef (5% as opposed to 25%), caloric-freer than beef (105 versus 95) and basically, a healthier food choice for those who enjoy meat."

Regardless of your dietary choice, a visit to Coyote Creek Deer Company is well worth your while. Bonnie and Dan are such hospitable hosts; you might want to stay  awhile.