Breeding prices have held for the past 3 years. Prices vary with quality and geography. Most of the breeding stock today are descendants of wild elk that have been behind wire for 40 years. The market for breeding stock is driven by the velvet market. And the demand for velvet is driven by foreign markets, particularly Korea and other Asian countries.
Velvet refers to a stage of antler development of the antler.
The blood in the antler is what is important at this stage. Velvet has sold on the world market for thousands of years. It is primarily sold to the Korean market for pharmacological products and used for prevention as well as medical treatments. The Asian world takes a different view to medicine than we do in North America. Asian medicine is an old culture and they have been using velvet for multitudes of years.