Business Rural Winter 2021

60 | DEER » Glenfiddich Deer Farm: Peter and Jema Swann ‘Big Dad’ the stag with velvet gene Virginia Wright Live deer recovery in the 70s and 80s formed the foundations of the Glenfiddich herd. Peter Swann with antlers from three-year-old stag Maverick weighing in at a staggering 17.44 kilograms. (03) 688 3074 Accounting for a farmer’s future Canon St reet , Timaru CAIRNS GROUNDSPREADING FOR ALL YOUR CROPPING AND PASTORAL REQUIREMENTS P Mike 027 436 4461 E cairnsgroundspreading@yahoo.com Latest Technology | TopcamComputers Variable Rate Spreading | Expertise cropping Proof-of-placement through Tracmap PROUD TO SUPPORT GLENFIDDICH DEER FARM P eter and Jema Swann are currently running around 300 deer on their 50 hectares known as Glenfiddich Deer Farm, not far from Ashbur- ton. They moved there 12 years ago from Mossburn, where they’d run deer since 1990, but the Swann family began deer farming on Peter’s family farm in the Two Thumb range in from Fairlie in the early 1970’s. Peter’s father, Bob, had seen what his friend, deer farming pioneer Tim Wallis, was up to and he had a feeling it might be a viable option for his own farm. “We had limited flat land and he’d built the sheep and cattle numbers up as much as he could,” explains Peter. “Tim Wallis had caught deer and started farming them in Mossburn in 1969, and Dad thought that was an option given that there were deer running wild in behind Fairlie.” The decision was made and Peter remembers digging the post-holes for the strainers in winter 1973 as a 13-year-old before the first deer were caught by helicopter on January 3 1974. “They flew from home and caught a hind up on our hill,” remembers Peter. “Then over the next few days we got around 15 hinds out on Dry Creek Station, and then that August they caught 74 hinds and four or five quite big stags working from Burkes Pass right round to Four Peaks.” Those deer were classed as the ‘Rakaia Herd’, which Peter believes had its origins in animals origi- nally brought in from England with some German breeding in their history. In 1977 Peter and Bob caught an impressive stag they called “Big Dad” when they were giving a deer-catching demonstration in the lead up to a Deer Farmers’ conference. Part of the Otago- Mackenzie herd’s origins were Scottish, which gave it a slightly different body-style, and as the Swann family were about to find out, an impressive velvet growing capacity. “I think it started at the second or maybe the third velvet competition,” says Peter. “He won three years in a row and then they made Dad a judge so we couldn’t enter him again,” he says with a laugh. Fast-forward to present day and it’s clear the Swann family have made the most of the raw material their deer genetics offers them. When the Swanns moved to Mossburn themselves in the 90’s they took with them their herd of New Zealand hinds and stags as well as a line of pure German stags Peter’s father had been instrumental in importing in the early 80s. They also took with them a belief in their New Zealand genetics to provide the quality velvet they were after. “We started keeping velvet records from the very beginning back in 1976,” says Peter. New Origon velvet products. “Dad noticed that the velvet from our Rakaia herd had very little calcification, it was more honeycomb. So while everyone else was crossing their New Zealand lines with imported ones, in 1992 I decided there’d be no more outside blood going into our herd and we’d breed from what we had. Then, a few years later, we sold off the German part of the herd.” Knowing that velvet is in effect a soft-growing tissue that can grow up to a centimeter a day, and having noticed that velvet from elsewhere showed more bone, Peter thought the honeycomb rich Rakaia herd velvet might prove to be better quality, and the science proved him right. “According to the scientists the lower the calcification the higher the organic matter,” explains Peter. “It’s quite simple really. We have more blood flow and blood weighs less than bone, so our weight to bulk ratio is lower than everyone else’s because the profile of our antlers is different, but we’re getting a higher volume of the higher grade with the active ingredients that are the key.” While his target is always moving, whether it’s finding a good home for all their velvet extract away from the traditional market, or getting a 10kg aver- age of velvet per head across the herd, before they retire, Peter’s latest goal has also just been realised. “This year I‘ve got a three-year-old with an incredible velvet head. Having a close relationship with a processor allowed us to push the boundaries on cutting time and we cut 17.4 kgs off him, so Jema’s asking if we can retire now,” he laughs, “but now I just want to see some of his two-year old sons and then we’ll probably step back,” says Peter. Although given his enthusiasm for what he does it doesn’t seem any more likely to happen then than when their last goals were achieved!