Reindeer Research Program trains prospective herders

Robert Wright of Tanana helps hold a reindeer Tuesday
as Erin Carr talks about using a squeeze chute to
immobilize the reindeer while weighing and giving
them medication.

The Reindeer Research Program, working with the Tanana Chiefs Conference, hosted a five-day workshop on reindeer production last week at UAF and in Delta Junction.

Program manager Greg Finstad said 10 participants attended from Fairbanks, Stevens Village, Ruby and Tanana.

Several communities are considering raising reindeer to provide food for their residents and possibly meat for sale. Finstad said the workshop was intended to help people gain knowledge and experience about reindeer and to help communities decide whether they want to raise them.

The training covered nutrition and feeding, facility design, animal husbandry, low-stress herding, handling and transport, and herd health management. The workshop combined lectures with field learning at the Reindeer Research Program’s facility at the experiment farm and the Stevens Village farm near Delta Junction, which raises bison and a few reindeer.

Tanana resident Charlie Wright participated in the training with his son, Robert. He said hopes to work with Tozitna, the village corporation in Tanana, to start a reindeer operation. He said raising reindeer could improve food security in the community and create a business that could provide year-round jobs.

“We’re really serious about it,” Wright said. He adds that the new road to the Yukon River makes the idea more feasible.

Wright notes that moose and caribou populations have decreased in recent years. “I think it’s important to have another food resource besides salmon.”

Greg Finstad talks about the veterinary care of reindeer as Robert
Wright looks on.

Ed Sarten, a natural resources specialist for Ruby tribal government, said Ruby also was interested in reindeer. Reindeer used be raised at Kokrines, which is now a ghost town upriver from Ruby, he said.

Sarten said Ruby was also interested reindeer as a source of food for the residents. At the same time, he said, “We would hope it would eventually be a business.”

On Tuesday, participants gathered at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm to see how reindeer feed is prepared. Reindeer caretaker Erin Carr explained that barley and oats are combined with canola oil to make the feed stick together and the mixture is then blended with brome hay for more fiber. Carr also displayed items for a first aid box, including hoof shears, gloves and medicines. She said it was important to get to know the reindeer so you know when they’re acting differently and are sick.

Afterward, the group met in the program’s facility and pens across from the Georgeson Botanical Garden. They got advice on herding and experience using a canvas-covered “squeeze chute” to hold the reindeer while weighing them, taking their temperature or providing medications. Students took turns holding the reindeer by their antlers in the squeeze chute as they were weighed.

The group considered a group of female reindeer, and drawing from an earlier lesson on body scoring, Finstad asked the group how they would rate a particular reindeer.

One of the trainees said, She’s definitely a 5. Nice and fat.”

The day ended with a herding activity, getting the novice herders to move reindeer from one pen to another. Finstad told the group, “This is your reindeer herd to move. Figure it out together.”

Repeatedly, the reindeer thundered past the herders until they successfully coaxed the herd into another pen and into a chute. Clearly, experience helped.

The workshop was supported by a grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.