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Important things to know about reindeer expenses.

Here we will share you all the information that a reindeer needs in a year. We will separate them into specific groups.

Female reindeer diet:

  • Pellets 2kg/day
  • Dry hay 2 kg/day
  • Linghen 0.3kg/day
  • Total of expenses in a month per female reindeer: 31- 43.4€

Male reindeer diet:

  • Pellets 2-3kg a day
  • Dry hay 2-5kg a day
  • Jäkälä/linghen 0.5 – 2 kg a day
  • Total of expenses in a month per reindeer: 52.28 – 64.48e

 

What is a winter season and a reindeer year?

Winter season starts with us in October by preparing for the coming season. We will start working every day by rounding up our reindeer and by making sure all the fences are strong and ready for the reindeer herd.

Official winter season starts half way in November and lasts till the end of april. So basically 5,5 months.In winter we feed our reindeer and focus on tourism, it is really important extra income for reindeer farms.

End of the busy season we will start again working with the reindeer calves that are born in May and June. This is called reindeer summer earmarking.

July is the time to collect all the herbs and dry the hay for the animals. 

August is the time when we collect all the berries and mushrooms for the winter. 

It is really important for the reindeer to be in the wilderness eating more than 300 different plants, berries and mushrooms!

September is reindeer mating time and it is time to start rounding them up. October is fully only working with the reindeer. 

Rounding up means that we will separate the reindeer from living and the reindeer that we will need to slaughter for the meat. We choose reindeer that are strong and healthy to go back to wilderness. Usually male calves that have never interacted with people or given any medicine will go to the slaughter house. Female calves are the ones that get to live if they are strong enough to survive the winter. In Finland slaughterhouses use 99% or even 100% or the reindeer so it is not wasted at all.

 

Equipment for the reindeer

  • GPS tracker 285,00e including sim card first year, after first year sim card is 20e/year.
  • Sledding reindeer equipment

These can last from 1-10 years.

Harness/ 250e

Mask/ 60e

Walking rope/ 25e

Sled/ 650e

  1. Earmark 1.30e/ last 1-12 years

This is only a fracture of the expenses as we also do need to use Atv, snowmobile, and build fences. I haven’t counted our own working clothes at all.

 

If we include vet, transportation, working hours, equipment for the reindeer and for the herder.

Vet 10e-250e year (some reindeer only need a vaccination).

Transport 0.55e/km 

Distance can be from 5-150km. (for one ride back home we might take 1-6 reindeer).

2,75e-82,50e Trip (We usually need to do many trips in a week with and without the reindeer).

 

 

Working hours with the reindeer herd in home fence

217 days in a year (October till april, sometimes winter is shorter so we don’t need to take care of them so many days. Sometimes in the summer months we need to work as well related to the job and then we might work extra 56-100 hours) . 

325,5 hours minimum