| 33 Servicing both sides of the deer market The farm policy is to run around one third sheep, one third beef and one third deer. Virginia Wright RURAL PEOPLE » Mike Ferrier Deer Mike Rivers is a self-confessed deer lover currently managing Three Rivers Farm 20 minutes out of Otorohanga. The farm policy is to run around one third sheep, one third beef and one third deer as part of its standard approach to risk management, but within that Mike has managed to get the stag numbers up to the maximum the farm environment can sustain with the most recent addition of 100 two-year olds bringing the total up to 500. At the same time they run 500 venison-based hinds and around the same number of weaners from which they keep replacements. Servicing both sides of the deer market with the hinds destined for venison and the stags there to produce velvet also spreads the risk. Mike likens it to running two breeds of cattle such as Hereford for meat and Fresians for milk. While they’re the same animal they’re each bred for a very different purpose. With the advent of the new government regulations around intensive winter grazing Three Rivers have decided against planting their usual winter crops. At the same time they’re reducing their ewe numbers from 2000 to around 1700 as part of an overall decision to reduce their capital stock thereby making winters a bit easier, with more sustainable numbers, and reducing their feed demand. “It’s going to be about taking the animals we do have, the lambs, the fauns and the cattle, to heavier weights before they’re sent to slaughter, so the theory is that the bottom line should stay the same,” says Mike. How low they’ll go with their hind numbers is yet to be decided while they wait to see what happens with the venison price and see how they go this winter without crops. While it’s the stags that used to graze on the winter crops Mike’s plan is that the reduction in numbers of the other animals will leave more for the stags to graze on around the farm. Stags make money in the spring which is when they’re velveted so their feed demand for September, October and November is high relative to the other nine months of the year. Next year is the first with no winter crop so he’s hoping for a kind summer and autumn allowing them to grow lots of winter feed so that they “come out of next spring smiling, and the animals are fat and happy and they grow lots of velvet,” says Mike with a smile of his own. He won’t really know until they do a velvet yield comparison. Last year they had a total yield of 2.7 ton of velvet from 400 stags including regrowth. This year they’ll be cutting velvet from 500 animals but when the newly arrived 2 year olds are cut for the first time as 3 year olds their yield won’t be as high. OTOROHANGA 9 Wahanui Crescent | 07 873 7089 OPENING HOURS: Mon - Fri 8am to 5pm Sat 9am to Midday 24 / 7 EMERGENCY - PHONE 0800 843 838 Taking that into account they’ve budgeted on 3.1 ton of velvet and done their sums accordingly. “It’s a bit of a wait and see game but having less stock units per hectare will make all the difference from what I’ve worked out on the feed budget, so the figures overall should stack up.” In the meantime they’re well underway with their five year Farm Environment Plan having fenced off 400 metres of sensitive waterways and about a hectare of wetland to exclude all stock, because there’s one thing about deer that Mike could do without. Water’s like a magnet to them. They’ll wallow anywhere they can find it, to the detriment of the natural environment, or even to the detriment of the area around a water trough where they’ll make their own wallow if that’s all that’s available. It’s early days but already there appears to be less silt and the stream bed is running more clear. It’s hoped its biodiversity will increase with a benign summer along with the amount of feed they can grow. Where quality and service count For all your contracting requirements Phone 07 872 0000 .nz www.johnaustinltd.co
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