Maral is the business card of the Altai mountains. Here are engaged in breeding, with the aim of obtaining antlers, meat, hides and other products. And the history began breeding two years ago.
Asile contained in the antlers of a deer forest, the Russians learned at the end of the XVIII century from the Chinese, watching them become deer antlers in large quantity. In Eastern medicine, antler velvet has been used for centuries in diseases of blood, cardiovascular system, weakened immunity, fatigue, exhaustion of the nervous system. Old prescription medications from deer antler dates back to 168 BC.
The first trapping of animals for the captivity industry has made brothers Sharapova in 1792 in the area of the Bukhtarma river in the South-Western Altai (now a district of East Kazakhstan). Immigrants from Central Russia who sold the antlers to China, just tired of chasing wild animals in the mountains. Deer began to catch and build for them a stag breeding farms. By the end of the XIX century, around the Altai Republic, there were already more than 200 stag breeding farms with livestock more than three thousand animals.
In the initial stages of domestication were caught, as a rule, only males, placing them in close yard pens. Because of the limited space and lack of natural habitat quality antlers deteriorated. The construction of fences directly on the territory of mountain ranges with natural springs and summer pastures have helped in the short term to rectify the situation and initiated the development of the antler of reindeer herding in the Mountain Altai.
The main product of the production — horns of young deer, contains a valuable therapeutic agent Pantocrinum. It is considered that the pantocrine is a powerful bio-stimulator, with a beneficial effect on the human body and give youth and strength (virility). The superiority of the Altai deer antlers laid at the genetic level. Equally important is the ecologically clean environment of Altai. We need only time to come here to understand the uniqueness of these places. The contents of the Altai marals here is as close as possible to the natural conditions. Attempted breeding elsewhere in the end, led only to deterioration in the quality of antlers.
In the Altai marals steel plant in the XVIII century, the first Christians, the old believers, who arrived from Russia.
Modern red deer farming is a large area of forest, surrounded by a fence from the grid-rabitsy or, less often, by a fence from the trunks of conifers. It is considered that one of the deer must have two hectares of the mountain range. A thousand individuals, as here it is not uncommon to have two thousand acres of land. The other two indispensable conditions favorable for the maintenance of the deer — the presence of a natural water source and the alternation of forests with open areas of the territory. Like stag breeding farms are divided into parks. In the territory contained some males, other females with young calves.
The antlers are cut only once a year — in the period from may to July. The condition of the antlers and their “readiness” experienced maral breeders determined by eye. The lost time means that the blood ceases to circulate alive and young antlers and antlers of deer begin to ossify. In this state the price is “ready” antlers plummets. To risk or not — decide in each individual case: for a day or two the antlers can gain weight up to several hundred grams (respectively, the price of such goods rises considerably).
The high concentration of substances in the body deer in a short period and gave rise to the idea of his enormous natural power.
How is the culling of deer? In the morning the beaters out on horseback in parkland, shouting and hooting (neither give nor take a scene from American westerns) chase the animals to a fenced area to corral. Here the chase almost stops, and a few dozen animals are in the trap. Everything takes a lot of time. Every time you meet deer paddock, trying not only to jump over a tall wooden fence (in the places of cutting antlers fences reach three metres high) but also to pop up from under the very nose of maralovodka immediately before the cutting of antlers.
Not every deer goes himself in a trap. The most fearful dragged into the machine, throwing on a leg loop of rope.
The next stage — the choice is deer, then the beaters discourage an animal from the main herd, and driven into the corridor, separated by wooden partitions. At the end of this fence is a machine — a device designed for fixation of the animal in a stationary state. As soon as the deer is in the machine, it sounds jerky team and under the feet of the animal with a special leverage falls through a wooden floor, while the sides are clamped tight wooden walls. The deer head is in a felt or wooden collar (clamp), horn fast and precise movements are fixed by means of leather braces, the eye jumps burlap… Antlers sawing an ordinary hand saw. Sawed the horns immediately carry, and release of deer from captivity, and in one leap he leaves the “scary” den — up to next year and next season.
Place a saw cut often bleeds, especially in hot weather, it cover (rubbed) with a mixture of special and ordinary alum naphthalene, designed to save deer from infection.
Cut antlers include cooking, where they are tied with ropes, and then dipped into a VAT of boiling water and leave there for as long as the butt (cut) will not appear droplets of blood. Then remove the antlers, keep some time on the weight and the whole procedure is repeated.
The resulting antler from the boiling “broth” and there is healing and life-giving elixir. In it, like in a fairy tale, dive hunters for health. It is considered that the entire treatment course consists of 10 antler baths. Procedure in recent years adopted in the Altai truly national recognition: thousands of tourists in this short period of cutting antlers rush to the Altai for the portion of health.
Today antler baths are mostly Siberians, who came from the far North, Western Siberia and Kuzbass. They are popular among athletes, astronauts, political elite of the country.
Carry antler “broth” for the recovery of the public in other places, tried more than once. But did not catch on: in normal conditions, the “broth” almost immediately turns sour and
deprived, as is commonly believed, its medicinal properties.
In conditions when the demand on the international market for natural product Altai in recent years has fallen several times from the same Korean and Chinese medicine to biochemical artificial additives), the producers in the Altai began to think about refocusing their red deer farms. Many of them began to build and open a separate font, and actively to entice those wishing to correct health. And if in former times, at the dawn of the red deer farms, to swim, and not once, in the broth of antlers can be had for free, now in some farms the price of one procedure worth decent money.
Of course antler baths not a panacea, but just one of many effective procedures for the recovery of the body. By the way, do maral breeders prefer antler fonts is alive and the fresh blood of animals. But as they say, on taste and color…
