rants. Last year, the United States imported 450 tons

rants.

Last year, the United States imported 450 tons of venison, “almost all of it from New Zealand,” Mr. Graage reported. The meat — primarily saddles and hind legs — represented about 25,000 animals. “There are only 25 active deer farmers in this country today, and I don’t think we produce more than 1,500 animals a year, so just to satisfy the current market and replace what’s brought here from New Zealand would take us 20 to 30 years of building up our herds,” said Mr. Graage.

But he envisions a much larger export market, and so he and other members of the North American Deer Farmers Association are touting the financial opportunities in raising deer.

“Germany imports over 12,000 tons of venison, even though they have 2,000 deer farms, and wild game is legally sold there,” he said, pointing out that North American producers would have lower freight costs and could therefore undercut the prices of New Zealanders who are now Europe’s major suppliers.

In addition, he predicted a bigger domestic market as sophisticated American consumers come to appreciate farm raised venison, both for taste and health.

Today, annual venison consumption per capita in the U.S. cannot even be measured in tenths of an ounce, despite its attraction of having one-third the cholesterol of beef.

“Most people here who have tried venison have eaten the meat of wild deer,” Mr. Graage says. “Those animals are under enormous stress as they are hunted.

"Their system is full of adrenalin which makes the meat tough. Often, the deer aren’t properly butchered in the field, and then the carcasses are left in the back of a pickup truck for hours in the sun. It’s no w onder the venison doesn’t taste so good.”

Hunters also go after the trophy bucks, and the meat from these 10 and 12 year-old animals is tough, no