Podcast 541: Noble Elk: From Farm to Bottle

(Intro)

JADE: That's for real. Behind us, we got a big old pile of elk antler. From our elk herd here in southern Wisconsin. So makes for a good backdrop hopefully here for the podcast. 

MARTIN: Greetings. This is Martin Pytela for a Life Enthusiast podcast and today with me I have Jade Noble of Noble Farms, and with that we are introducing to you Cervid Labs or maybe it's pronounced Cervid, take a pick. Anyway, Jay Noble, welcome to the Life Enthusiast podcast.

JADE: Martin, thanks for having me.

MARTIN: Yeah, it's a pleasure. So, Jade just to the onset. That pile behind you, that's for real. Is it?

JADE: That's for real. Behind us we got a big old pile of elk antler. From our elk herd here in southern Wisconsin. It makes for a good backdrop hopefully, here for the podcast.

MARTIN: Oh, it's a perfect backdrop. So, people need to understand this pile of the fastest-growing tissue in the mammalian world is available as an abundant resource to us.

JADE: Yeah, exactly. So basically, antler, and I know we're going to speak on velvet antler here today, and there is a difference. We have hard antler behind us, but in use in medicine and in dietary supplements is velvet antler, that fast growing tissue coming from the elk, and that antler does, it regenerates every single year. It's one of the fastest growing tissues in nature. And it's full of marrow, tissue, collagen, glucosamine, all sorts of good minerals and nutrients. That's why people take it daily.

MARTIN: The magic word hydroxyapatite, which makes up the bone, right?

JADE: Absolutely.

MARTIN: Right on. So, Jade, yeah. Are you the owner? Because it's named Noble Farms.

JADE: I am the owner. We decided, we named it Noble Elk Farm. As basically, our herd and our farming side of this full operation. We started back in 2020. And we've been basically building a high fence here in southern Wisconsin, growing our elk herd, and now we're up over a hundred elk, 100 Rocky Mountain elk here in southern Wisconsin.

MARTIN: Right, how big is the ranch or farm?

JADE: Yeah, we're over about 110 acres fenced in. And that's what we run them on. Elk do a lot better than beef cattle on the land. So, you can actually where they say with beef you can run about one head of beef per acre. With elk, they say you can actually run about three heads of elk per acre. Just because they're so much better on the land, they're not as hard on it. They only pick out the best nutrients out of the ground. I think a lot better farm animal to raise is what I found.

MARTIN: Okay. Yeah, I didn't think of it that way, but that's awesome. So, of course, these animals, they are well cared for, and they're harvested when it's their time and all that, right?

JADE: Exactly. Yes. Elk are predominantly grazers. Throughout the summertime, they're pretty much on pasture all year, they get a little bit of alfalfa hay in the winter time. We don't do any vaccines. We don't do any hormones, no antibiotics, no spraying of any pesticides or anything on the ground. So, we try to keep it as all natural as possible because we're in both the meat market and we're in the velvet market. So everything that goes into that animal is going into your end product for consumers. So that's why we try to keep them as stress-free, as healthy as possible here on the farm.

MARTIN: Right. Well lately in the last few years the keto diet and then the carnivore diet and the return to being hunter diet has become quite the fashion. So you're really riding the wave of rising interest, right?

JADE: Yeah. Absolutely. And we've seen a huge demand. It's rapidly growing for mainly red meat alternatives. Elk, bison, it's a super low fat, high protein, low cholesterol meat. Much more nutrient dense and I would say in general the demand for elk and these leaner meats definitely elk the demand for it far exceeds the supply that's currently here in the United States. So definitely a growing market.

MARTIN: Yeah. So it's not a bad place to be as a business person.

JADE: No, not at all. I love the elk business. So this is what I do.

MARTIN: That’s great. Okay. So on our end, we have four of your products listed, which I would like to discuss each one of them. One of them is the capsulated powdered antler or velvet antler, as you correctly called it, and then the other one is a liquid form. Well, I mean let's start with that. So here we have it as a dietary supplement. Do you want to talk a bit about the science and what it does in the human body?

JADE: Yeah. What you're looking at right there is our elk velvet antler capsules and that's made using 100% pure. So one, nothing else added, no fillers, no flowing agents, no additives. It's just using 100% whole velvet antlers. So that's using the entire antler while it's in that growth stage. And kind of like what I was touching on before, it's mainly the inside. It's made out of that marrow and the tissue found inside of that antler. Don't be confused, a lot of people hear the word velvet and they think it has something to do with the hair or the fuzz on that antler. And that's not the case. All your nutrients that's found inside of that antler is from all that blood, marrow, and tissue inside. So, we basically take that entire antler that's harvested every year. You only get one crop per year of velvet antler.

We take that antler, we freeze dry it to preserve the nutrients and the minerals found inside of that antler. Once it's dried, it's as simple as just milling and grinding it up into a powder and then encapsulating it. And again, this is a supplement that somebody's going to take, think like almost a daily multivitamin because it is so nutrient-rich, but otherwise we have plenty of people with arthritis, MS, super bad joint issues, mobility issues. That's the main use case for velvet antler. With the high levels of collagen peptides, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, that's the main use for it.

MARTIN: Yeah, these are essentially the elements that make up the structural parts of anybody. Our bones, but not just the bones, the connective tissue, and everywhere. So this will, of course, affect cartilage, joints, hair, nails, you name it. All of that connective stuff. That's what this is made of.

JADE: Absolutely. And there really isn't, with how we're processing it here and how we source it. We own both the farm side of the operation in Noble Elk Farm, and we own the processing through Cervid Labs. So when we say we're farm to bottle, we're truly a farm to bottle manufacturer because we see that animal and how it's taken care of, and we see that supplement from raw antler stage to dried powder to finished capsule into a labeled bottle without any part of that.

MARTIN: You actually bought your own encapsulation machine, yeah?

JADE: Yeah. We're set up for commercial drying, particle-size reduction, encapsulation, and packaging. Yeah.

MARTIN: Awesome. 

JADE: Because we can see that process from start to finish. You get a much more effective product, the quality is there. We see it where there's a lot of supplement companies out there and they source their raw ingredients. They really don't know where they're sourcing it from or where that animal was raised. Or a lot of parts of the process can be subcontracted out or moved through different facilities, where you lose complete quality control on the product. So that's one thing we pride ourselves on is our velvet antler product truly is farm to bottle.

And when you're looking at, let's go to this other product here. So the Elk Velvet Antler Liquid, this is still just 100% using 100% pure elk velvet antler, but taking it in a liquid form. Some people prefer the tinctures and the liquids because you can take it under the tongue and absorb the nutrients that way, and some say it absorbs it quicker under the tongue.

MARTIN: So, I forgot to look. What do you dissolve it in?

JADE: So, we use an organic grape alcohol, and we use water.

MARTIN: Did you say grape?

JADE: Yep. Organic grape alcohol and purified water. That’s it.

MARTIN: Like French grape vodka, yeah?

JADE: Yeah. There you go.

MARTIN: That's awesome. That's the healthiest alcohol you can find. And of course, you need some organic solvent to get that,

JADE: To pull the compounds out, yeah, and the nutrients out. And one big thing to hit on here in the liquid side is that there are certain things found in Velvet Antler that your body isn't going to really retain through a capsule, where you might do better with it in the liquid space. So, we definitely get a lot more of our weightlifters or athletes or people that are training every day, who are looking for some of the growth factors found in velvet antler like IGF-1 and IGF-2, they're going to opt for the liquid because their body's going to be able to get that through the liquid under the tongue.

MARTIN: Right on. Anybody who's in the anabolic type of situation where they want to grow new tissue, retain muscle or grow muscle or heal from illness, this is the situation, right? If you're going to spot change it, this is when you want it, right?

JADE: Absolutely. Yeah.

MARTIN: Yeah. That's awesome. And it's, there have been research studies going back 354 years that I know of looking at the growth factor being stimulated by both deer and elk antler extract.

JADE: Yep. And there's plenty, there's plenty of liquids too that I've seen on the market, and like you said, a lot of people lean into deer antler from what we have seen from a processing standpoint, elk has so much more marrow inside of that antler than deer. It's just such a cleaner, more potent product that we've seen through the elk rather than the deer. 

MARTIN: Jade, would you mind reaching behind you? Scott, could you return it to the big picture? Would you mind reaching behind you and just showing the size of that big,

JADE: Let's take a look.

MARTIN: Right.

JADE: Grows in about, honestly, it's about from nothing on their head to a full set. It's only about four months of antler growth.

MARTIN: Right. This elk was carrying this on his head and had to have a very strong neck, right?

JADE: Oh, they're big animals. Oh, yeah. They got those bulls have strong necks on them.

MARTIN: What does that thing weigh?

JADE: Probably between the set, like a big mature bull that's pushing, and we do breed specifically for heavy velvet weights here because we are in the velvet business. Right? Where some breeders are focused on trophy markets and whatnot, we are focused on our antler weights and in a very heavy set. They can range anywhere from 20 to 80 pounds depending on that bull.

MARTIN: Yeah. It's totally impressive. That thing, just contemplating that you grow that every season. The resources that the animal has to devote to this is just so impressive.

JADE: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Well, they're growing their antlers right now. Now, you can just tell that the amount of protein they need and energy they need to sit there and grow that antler. I can go feed some elk in the morning and come back out in the evening, and they might have pushed an inch or two inches of antler in just that one day. It's wild to see how quickly growing tissue that it actually is.

MARTIN: Yeah. All right. Now, this I find exciting. This is the organ complex. This is the inside of the animal.

JADE: Yeah. So, our elk organ, we are one of the only ones processing an elk organ on the market right now. I've noticed, online and as you said earlier, a lot of people are switching to primal-based diets and getting back to what our ancestors ate. And so, you do see a lot of beef organs on the market that probably come from pools of USDA. Who really knows where those beef organs come from? But with our elk organ and it is a very clean organ, like I said earlier, elk only pick the best nutrients out of the ground. So, when you eat that elk liver, you're getting those better nutrients as well.

This is truly nature's multivitamin right here.

MARTIN: Yeah. I'm thinking of the elk as the athlete of the field, right? He's not a lazy grazer like the cow. 

JADE: Exactly.

MARTIN: He's athletic.

JADE: Yep. And when you look at what's in elk organs from biotin, copper, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12, it’s a great product. And similar to the velvet antler, all we're doing is when we take our elk into a federally inspected butcher plant, we get those bulk organs, the liver, the heart, the kidney. All we do is freeze dry them to preserve the nutrients found inside of those organs. From there, it's a simple milling it, putting it in for the end consumer.

MARTIN: Do you use any carrier or is it just straight protein?

JADE: No. Well, unlike many others, most others have to use flowing agents, and we don't. Our process and how we do it, we don't use any flowing agents, no fillers, nothing. It's just all it is is liver, heart, kidney.

MARTIN: Okay. Do you use the brain then? Huh? Liver, heart, kidney. Well, important. And so this is the highest source of purine. You may remember the word purine. P–u- r- i -n- e. That is what the hunter genetics requires to function well.

JADE: Sure.

MARTIN: If you need it, you need this sort of food.

JADE: Sure. And this is truly our ancestors. The organs are the hunter's portion when they would go and hunt an elk, and the first thing they would eat out in the field before taking the harvest back would be taking a bite of that heart or eating some of the liver. That is how they replenish, after a long hunt.

MARTIN: Indeed. Yeah. For those genetics that require it, not everybody's a vegetarian by genetics.

JADE: Sure.

MARTIN: In fact, a lot of the well, especially the native people who lived here, the ones that followed bison all their lives, but a lot of the European stock was also from the hunting genetics.

JADE: Absolutely. I think as a daily vitamin, there's not something I swear by more than that it is you feel elk organs are potent. And they're great for you. So, it's better to eat the organs than it is to eat the elk ribeye, on the animal, if you're talking about what's,

MARTIN: Yeah, truly, right?

JADE: The ribeye might taste better, but the organs are a lot better for you.

MARTIN: Yeah. Right. Well, what about this last thing? We have four products of yours. This is the last of it. The pet tablets.

JADE: Yeah. So, our pet formulas doesn’t specifically target, velvet antler is a great market, but we sell just as much velvet antler for pets, and it's just as beneficial for dogs as it is for people. Many dogs suffer from arthritis. They suffer from hip and joint issues, mobility issues. And what we've found is velvet antler works honestly just as quick, if not quicker in dogs than it does people. So, all this is a pet tablet formulated for them. The only other thing that we add in this tablet is going to be ginseng which is paired in traditional medicine. It's often paired with velvet antler, and it's supposed to help with the dogs, older dogs, elderly dogs energy levels.

MARTIN: Yeah. Well, Ginseng is a bit of a stimulant. It just gives a bit of a lift, life force stimulation. But what's interesting about this is that it's a tablet, so you just press the dry mass together, and there it goes?

JADE: Absolutely. Yep. It's a pressed tablet and dogs just, because of a natural scent that dogs love anyways, dogs tend not to shy away from this tablet. They tend to just go for it because of that scent and that taste of the velvet antler found inside of it.

MARTIN: Right. So there's no reason why a human wouldn't crunch on these too, right? 

JADE: Absolutely. It's more just marketing. So some people think, when they see a human dietary supplement, they may think, "Oh, I can't give this to my dog." So that's the point of creating a line there for the dogs. So when people see that on a shelf that they're confident in the product that they can give it to their dog,

MARTIN: Right? Okay. Can you tell whether the capsule versus the tablet is of any difference how it functions?

JADE: Not really. So when you're processing or manufacturing a tablet though, there are some binding agents you have to use in a tablet. Personally, I like the capsules. I'm a capsule guy. I eat a ton of capsules. I'll do a little liquid under the tongue. But everybody's a little different as far as what their preference is and how they want to take it. But the way we envision when we make this supplement, we wanted to be able to offer something to everyone, based on how they like to take, how they want to take their supplements.

MARTIN: Right on. I’m so impressed how well you're managing this whole situation, all American business, right?

JADE: Yeah. I started, I basically started with nothing. So, I got out of the Marine Corps. We used our VA home loan to buy our, basically our first 10 acres of land that I started building a high fence on. And knew I wanted to get into the elk business or somewhat of an exotic cervidae realm like deer, elk, access deer, something in there. I wanted to find some cervid to raise, and we landed on elk just because of how good the meat is, and many products you get from this, especially when I started looking into the velvet antler market. When I first got into velvet antler, we used to harvest velvet antler on our farm, and we would send it out for manufacturing, and it would go to one guy to get dried, and it would get sent somewhere else to get ground up into powder, and then it would go somewhere else to a different co-packer for bottling and sealing and everything. And by the time we got our product back, we were like, we lost complete control of where did our supplement, all these hands that are in it. Which is why we decided to bring it in-house and build a manufacturing facility here.

MARTIN: Yeah, fortunately, you were in a growing market, so you were able to just ride the wave of the growth, right?

JADE: Yeah. And I think I'm actually very optimistic about the future of velvet antler. Obviously, a lot of people it sounds foreign or brand new, they've never heard of it here in the US. This product is nothing new. It's been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine. I myself have been to Seoul, South Korea. It's in all their health stores out there in South Korea. Velvet antler gets exported into Hong Kong. It's huge overseas. This is something that kids get , middle-aged people get, and elderly people get and take. It's nothing new, really, and I think as the market is switching over and becoming more open to taking holistic and natural approaches to medicine, and so, I do see this market actually expanding a lot here in the United States.

MARTIN: Well, I mean logically, right we were hunters before we were farmers.

JADE: Yes.

MARTIN: And so this is the oldest we can find.

JADE: Absolutely.

MARTIN: The original nutrition. Tell me how do you or how do you sell that?

JADE: Yeah. So our meats we mainly sell off the farm here. We do local restaurants and local grocery stores. We do farmers markets. I'm at farmers' markets every single weekend all year long. And we do have frozen meat on our website. It's out of stock right now, but you have to keep checking back because whenever we butcher an elk, and we get it listed on there, it sells out pretty quick.

MARTIN: Yeah. Well, you have the renewable resource, the antler, and it's like the famous golden goose, right? It keeps giving antlers until you kill it.

JADE: It does. Yes, it does. They keep growing this every year. So, we do have a plan, for our bulls, where we harvest them before there's an endgame, on that bull. And most cows we were breeding and using artificial insemination to grow our herd bigger and bigger year over year.

MARTIN: Well, it's so awesome to have somebody who's really doing the, I don't know. I feel like it's doing the right thing, right? Just going back to the roots of it all and being with the land on the land doing what needs to be done.

JADE: Yeah. And we love what we do, and it is, the thing about this business is that I'm really never trying to sell anything. It's people who really realize how good the stuff is. Whether they try some of the elk meat and they go, "Man, that's some of the best meat I've ever had." There it is. You feel great when you eat elk meat or you get into some of the elk supplements and it starts changing people's lives with how their body feels and how their body interacts every day. It is. I'm in a good business, man. In a good business of health, and so we love what we're doing.

MARTIN: I really appreciate that. Proud to be associated with you. Thank you.

JADE: Great. Thanks.

MARTIN: Yep. Okay. Thank you very much. I couldn't have said it better. This is the most wholesome thing you can put in your body. So there we go. You can get it in the capsule or in the liquid, and you can get the purine-rich organ meat, which is the top-level nutrition for all of yourselves. All right, Jade Noble, the entrepreneur.

JADE: Thanks, Martin. Appreciate it.

MARTIN: Yeah, thank you for being here. This is Martin Pytela. You'll find me at life-enthusiast.com. It's the Life Enthusiast Health Shots podcast. Thank you very much, Jade.

JADE: Thanks.

SCOTT: Okay, before we hang up, Jade, I was wondering if you could tell any stories about bodybuilders using the products.

JADE: Yeah. It really depends. There are plenty of bodybuilders. Actually, one of the first big news articles or big news that when Velvet Antler got into the news or into the scene was, I don't know if you guys remember, but it was during the Super Bowl back when Ray Lewis was taking Velvet Antler or deer antler spray, and it was a big thing in the news. Did you ever hear about any?

MARTIN: No, I was in the health not bodybuilding, right? So it was not my thing.

JADE: Yeah, so mainly we get weightlifters like we are heavily involved in MMA scene. So UFC mixed martial arts fighters their bodies take a beating right? Their bodies take a toll just from training not even from the actual fight, but from training months and months and months leading up to their fights. So, as a rapid recovery, and that's where we do see a lot of serious athletes that are training hard, that they're in it.

MARTIN: You said it well. It's actually anybody who's pushing their body, whether it's for running or lifting or any other muscular activity, because when you overtrain, you need to repair, and this is the best repair material because those are the best building blocks available.

JADE: It is. And a couple years back we sent some of our velvet antler because we're on the state line here of Wisconsin and northern Illinois. We sent our velvet antler up to the University of Chicago, and they were testing on mice and the mice that get the velvet antler their cartilage is rebuilding faster, their bones are stronger and healthier. They're doing all these testing and actual studies on it that shows and proves that the stuff works.

SCOTT: So, do you have any testimonials from bodybuilders or elite athletes?

JADE: We have a few. If you check out our social media and stuff, too. I'm not a big, I'm not the best marketing company in the world. I'm really good at what I do here with my Elk herd, and I'm really good at what we do with how we manufacture it. But I haven't grown big enough yet, to where we're pulling in influencers and different bodybuilders that everybody's going to know by name. But, yeah, I think we're going to get to that point.

SCOTT: Great. All right. Anything else you want to ask Martin before I do the end the stream?

MARTIN: No, I don't think so. This covers it well.

JADE: Okay. Thanks a lot guys.

https://nobleelkfarm.com/