38 | Venison price outlook ‘promising’ Spikers in velvet at Morna Downs. Elise Rutherford Photography Kim Newth Returns from deer farming are picking up this year, with venison prices recovering from their Covid-induced slump. It’s a welcome change for rural couples like Matthew and Belinda Rutherford, who run a sheep, beef and deer operation near Culverden in North Canterbury. Their farm, Morna Downs, has been in the Rutherford family for a long time. Matthew and Belinda, with their young family of three, are proud to be farming in partnership with Matthew’s parents, Craig and Donna, who first introduced deer to the 1800ha farm some 30 years ago. “My father’s vision was to fence the more unproductive land for deer where the sheep didn’t do well and run them on the hill as a low input animal. Having three classes of stock spread the risk.” Venison is a niche product that was particularly hard hit by the global shutdown of the foodservice sector in 2020 as a result of Covid-19. Matthew is grateful that their deer operation runs on low inputs, as this helped cushion the impact. “It did affect us though – for three years, we really felt it in the pocket,” says Matthew. “Thankfully, it’s looking a lot more positive now with prices coming back up. The outlook is much more promising.” Today, Morna Downs runs 12,000 stock units, comprising 5400 ewes (Waiere Romneys), 1700 hoggets, 220 Angus cows and 1000 red deer hinds. “For us, lambs are by far our biggest source of income. We try and finish all our lambs. We tend to hold onto them a wee bit longer as we’ve got good, irrigated land to fatten them on. We take a few off at weaning, pre-Christmas, and then really start shifting them off in February/March.” Cattle are taken through to 18 months and then sold together to the same buyer each year. In late DEER » Morna Downs spring, as grass growth takes off, the cattle are bought down from the farm’s hill country as a feed control tool. Since the 1990s, deer genetics on the farm have shifted away from Wapiti to running Eastern European bloodlines. As Matthew recalls, the large Wapiti bulls they started their breeding programme with were difficult to work with and not particularly resilient. “We went away from them and tried an AI programme to start with, to breed our own stags. We then found another breeder who was well ahead of us in the programme and we just buy their stags now. After we started doing that, conception rates went up dramatically and fawning percentages went up with them. “We’ve had more fawns on the ground and better survival. We’re getting better weaners that are not too big and can still be used as a replacement in our hill country operation.” Some 150 weaner deer were recently sold into the chill market but Matthew likes to hold onto the young stags, in particular, through to December or January so they put weight on, with the added bonus of more velvet off the spikers. Matthew says his father makes a big contribution to farm development and day to day running of the farm. They also have an excellent stock manager, Trevor Spencer, who takes great pride in his work. At the time of writing, they were looking for a junior shepherd to join the farm team. “Thankfully, it’s looking a lot more positive now with prices coming back up.” Morna Downs runs 12,000 stock units, comprising 5400 ewes (Waiere Romneys), 1700 hoggets, 220 Angus cows and 1000 red deer hinds. Proud to be a long term nutrient partner for Morna Downs Ltd
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