To people passing by the Fairbanks  Experiment Farm, the herd of reindeer is a mild curiosity, a few minutes’ pause along the roadside, but to university researchers the animals at the farm are a never-ending source of research possibilities.

Meat science, range management, nutrition, reproductive health, disease prevention and radio telemetry are the areas of study for the Reindeer Research Program, a part of UAF’s School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences since 1981.

“Reindeer are adapted to living on the tundra,” says Greg Finstad, RRP program manager. “We are trying to establish reindeer as the main livestock in Alaska. We are about research, outreach and education to support the reindeer industry from pasture to palate.”

Developing and promoting reindeer production through research and collaboration with producers and communities is RRP’s mission. Researchers strive to ensure that their work has direct applicability to reindeer herders and producers. Finstad predicts that the market for reindeer meat will become very promising for the state. “I see it as the most important economic base in a lot of rural communities,” he says. “They can take a natural resource from their community and use our research and training to create a valuable and sought-after product.”

The Reindeer Research Program’s work ranges from Fairbanks to the Seward Peninsula. But about 80 reindeer live at the experiment farm at UAF, where they attract public attention in the spring when the first tiny calves arrive and in December when people want to compare the livestock to the flying creatures associated with winter holiday legends (much to the chagrin, sometimes amusement, of the RRP faculty and staff). The animals are corralled or pastured at the farm, where intensive studies of reindeer breeding habits and diet are carried out.  Examples of research include:

• A nutrition project compares nugget bluegrass and smooth bromegrass to determine how they affect milk composition. Nugget bluegrass was chosen as the best pasture grass due to its higher protein content and easy digestibility.
• Another nutrition study works hand in hand with the Matanuska Experiment Farm located near Palmer, where haylage for the reindeer is produced. The smooth bromegrass haylage is mixed with balanced milled rations such as barley, brome, oats, fishmeal, corn or molasses for testing on two-year-old steers. The experiment may bring notable cost savings for producers.
• The diets of 20 one-year-old bulls are being supplemented with fish bone meal to see how it changes antler growth.
• Fence studies compare free-range systems to controlled environments.
• Precise recordkeeping charts the program’s calving, nutrition, meat yield, herd dynamics, breeding protocols, product testing, vaccinations, parasite controls and immunology.
• One graduate student is researching the shelf life of reindeer meat to discover the best methods of freezing, storing and shipping meat to world markets. Other graduate students are studying non-meat byproducts, antlers and range management.

UAF is working with Kapiolani Community College culinary school in Hawaii to develop gourmet recipes using reindeer meat. A February slaughter resulted in 50 pounds of high-quality cuts of meat being shipped for testing. “They are excited to get a new exotic product to work with and we’re excited to provide it,” Finstad says. Of special interest to the chefs is the fact that the meat is high in protein and minerals, low in fat and cholesterol, and of course very tasty. The Hawaiian chefs are developing soup, stew and steak recipes that will appeal to the Asian palate in hopes of enticing upscale restaurants in the Pacific Rim countries to serve the meat. There is already more demand than supply, but Finstad hopes to develop more gourmet (and therefore pricier) uses than the typical Alaska method of grinding the meat into sausage. “We’re not looking at volume, we’re looking at quality and getting the most money for the meat.”

Although selling reindeer to high-end restaurants may be a novel idea, reindeer are not new to Alaska. It has been home to the animals since 1892 when Sheldon Jackson, commissioner of education at the time, transported domestic reindeer from Siberia to the Seward Peninsula to help with food shortages among the Native people. Federal funds were even appropriated for purchasing reindeer to be distributed to mission schools on the Seward Peninsula and throughout Western Alaska. During Nome’s gold rush,  reindeer pulled sleds full of gear for the miners and provided a valuable food source. The state’s reindeer population got as high as 640,000 in the 1930s but an extremely harsh winter in 1938–1939 caused tremendous losses. Reindeer also migrated with caribou, and wolves devoured many of them. The 1937 Reindeer Act restricted ownership to Alaska Natives, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs responsible for range management and issuing grazing permits.

Today there are 20 reindeer herders and about 10,000 reindeer in Western Alaska. Herders belong to the Reindeer Herders Association, a division of Kawerak, Inc.’s natural resources division. RRP works closely with the association and the UAF Northwest Campus in all its research and activities. About 7,000 reindeer live on Nunivak, St. Paul, Umnak and other Aleutian islands. The deer are managed as domestic animals, roaming free range most of the time and being corralled for ear tag placement.

Researchers attempted branding, as it works so well on cattle, but reindeer have such a thick coat and thin skin that it didn’t work. A reindeer hide holds up to 15,000 hollow hairs per square inch, trapping air to keep the animals warm. In the summer they shed most of the hair. Reindeer are good swimmers and have huge shovel-like feet, useful for digging up food. Their sensitive noses can smell through two feet of snow in search of their favorite morsel, lichen. Antlers, adding up to 50 extra pounds for the animals to carry, drop off in the summer and grow back bigger the next fall.

The research would hardly matter if there were no people to take up the challenge of raising the animals, so educating young Natives to become successful reindeer producers is of primary importance to RRP. Through the Northwest Campus, a high-latitude range management certificate program is available; it brings together local experts and UAF faculty to offer courses that prepare students for jobs in the field of natural resources. Students learn field-based techniques, ecological concepts of sustained yield and the management of animal populations. Modules cover herd health, meat
science and technical writing.

The arrival of a mobile meat processing lab in Nome brought a crucial element to the high-latitude range management program. The USDA-funded equipment will support the meat production courses by allowing for USDA inspection, expanding the markets where meat can be sold. Currently, producers are only allowed to sell frozen meat locally; once the lab is operational the meat can be sold to restaurants and retail markets. “There is a long line of potential buyers of inspected reindeer meat,” Finstad said. Faculty are developing operational plans for the unit, which will need approval from the Department of Environmental Conservation and the state veterinarian.

“This project exemplifies how universities can engage in partnerships, which encourage economic sustainability through university educational certificates and research that directly applies to local concerns,” Finstad said. With the portable lab, students and researchers will be able to conduct meat science experiments, and the information will be incorporated into training protocols, coursework, published scientific journals and public information forums. Local applications in animal husbandry and slaughtering techniques are expected to become more responsive to regional needs.

“This lab is a critical link to integrate a local educational platform with animal research,” Finstad said.
Another new arrival in Nome is Heikki Muhonen, an expert in reindeer meat science from Finland. After teaching meat science all over the northern latitudes he agreed to work with RRP in Nome for the next two years. “I like to see new systems,” he said. “It’s like starting from zero; there are lots of possibilities for education and outreach.”

He helped develop a reindeer meat industry in Finland, which is now proving profitable, and hopes to do the same in Alaska. Key to the project is implementing consistent standards for slaughtering, storing and cutting meat. “It’s a special product,” Muhonen said. “It’s not on the same table as cattle and pork.” A confirmed believer in the value of reindeer meat, he said, “It is one of the best meats in the world; it is healthy, low-fat and very tasty.”