Linda’s Mission: Make Elk a Household Word
Linda Karber aims to make a thriving market for elk meat. That means putting in on everyone’s list as a healthful alternative to beef, pork, chicken and fish.
Watertown, SD (PRWEB) February 8, 2005 -- When Linda Karber sets her mind to
something, she doesn’t stop until she gets it done. Her current mission is to
make a thriving market for elk meat. That means putting in on everyone’s list as
a healthful alternative to beef, pork, chicken and fish.
Karber has been
raising elk for almost 30 years, but until recently her markets have been for
breeding stock, for hunting reserves and for the horns, which are used in
traditional Asian medicine. When she took possession of a sizeable herd in 1988
as part of a divorce settlement, she knew she had to find more
buyers.
“My first thought was, ‘What am I going to do with all these
elk,’” she said. “Then I decided to go to work promoting the elk industry. I
made videos of all the elk herds in South Dakota and took them to all the major
fairs across the state. I wanted to convince farmer’s that raising elk was a
great use of their land and show them that elk can be an alternative
agricultural industry.”
Karber became active in the South Dakota Elk
Breeders Association, but after two years she still had a lot of elk on her
hands.
“Some people from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development
came to one of my trade-show booths one day and offered to help with a grant for
a feasibility study on raising elk for their meat,” Karber continued. “Up to
that time, South Dakota had not been a factor in the elk-for-meat
market.
“So we learned what it would cost to raise elk for butchering,
where the markets are and what the competition is. I tried giving away free elk
burgers at butcher shops just to let people know that elk meat was available,
but I didn’t make a lot of progress until someone told me about a local woman
who does a wonderful job of building effective websites.”
“I can’t go
marketing elk meat all over the country, so selling on the web made a lot of
sense,” Karber said. It was in 2000 that www.elkmeatshop.com was born.
“It took two years before
we were in the black, but I didn’t get discouraged because the internet sales
built steadily,” Karber explained. “Now I’m raising more elk and sometimes have
to buy from other South Dakota producers.”
Karber is finally in the black
herself, but she’s not finished with her mission. “Elk meat is the perfect main
course for today’s health-conscious eaters,” she said. “It has more protein,
less fat and fewer calories than turkey, chicken, beef, pork, salmon and even
buffalo. My goal is to make that common knowledge.”
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb210719.htm