4 | DEER » Rata Peaks Station Succession planning a ‘positive experience’ Green Tag R1 stags, hinds. Ratapeaks sire, Columbo. Sue Russell At 1835ha, Rata Peaks Station, in the Rangitata Gorge inland from Ashburton, is an impressive property which was originally part of Mt Peel Station. Under the Land for Settlement Act of 1908, a portion of Mt Peel was separated out, with the purpose of providing a livelihood for soldiers returning from WW1. These days Sam and Jane Taylor and their one year old daughter Sophie call the original homestead ‘home’. Surrounded by beautiful English gardens it was, until recently, where Sam’s Mum, Jan Taylor, and her partner Craig Feaver lived. They have now moved into a new home further up the farm. A succession programme is underway as Sam steps into eventual ownership. He takes care of the sheep and beef leaving Craig to concentrate on the deer, grown out for venison, and velvet. The Dohne merino sheep are a dual-purpose breed well suited to the conditions. Rata Peaks Station currently carries 1800 Dohne ewes and 100 straight Angus breeding cows. “Dohne are a bigger meat yielding sheep and have very good fertility, with a lambing percentage, depending on the season of 120-130%,” Sam says. While producing great meat, Dohne are a lot plainer in their wool. Rata Peaks Station is one of only a handful of farms where Dohne are the breed of choice. Asked how the farm is standing up these days, he says its in good condition, though affected a while back by flooding that caused some damage. Sam says depending on the season between a quarter and half of the Dohne lamb stores bottom end are sold between March and May. “We try to finish as many of our terminal lambs as we can but otherwise the bulk of them will go at weaning. Between 1000 to 1400 are wintered and finished off depending on the season as well.” The area Rata Peaks Station is in is mainly deer. There’s quite a heavy reliance on growing kale and swedes to supplement feed and 30ha is put into lucerne, which takes care of the balage needs for the deer farm. Before returning to Rata Peaks Station to take over its running, Sam did stints of several years on other properties at Rakaia and near Wanaka. The family received great support from Andy Macfarlane [Macfarlane Rural Business] on how to initiate a succession plan and Craig says, a clear willingness by all parties to find the best process, has stood everyone in good stead. “Succession is such a big deal but for us its been a positive experience and is working well,” Craig says. This is not the first time Rural South has had the opportunity to talk with Craig. Asked how things have been going, he says recently the building of a new home for him and Jan has occupied their time and attention. “The timing wasn’t the best as things were delayed when COVID arrived and we were just about to put the roof on when we had the major flood. It took the builders four months to clean up the house site.” Some of the materials damaged in the flood were subsequently used to build flood protection into the landscaping. Craig says the silver-lining was the site actually ended up being better than it originally was. The farm itself also experienced damage, with a large number of sheep and deer fences impacted as well as destruction of all the access tracks, with more work needed to attend to reinstating these in the future. Craig concentrates on the deer activity at Rata Peaks Station, with 230 commercial hinds, 150 velvet hinds and 450 velvet stags. “Velvet prices are holding reasonably well and venison prices have stabilised and are reasonable. I do think the deer organisations could communicate more readily with us on issues impacting the sector. Right now if you were to ask me what kind of return we’re expecting from velvet next season I wouldn’t know,” says Craig. At the last velvet cut one head weighed in at 20.7kg. Craig says a concern he has relates to the size some velvet heads are grown out to. “There’s an animal welfare question and sometimes the stag can look quite uncomfortable.” Craig is still velvetting some stags that are 12 or 13 years old. Sometimes a stag can present with On Farm Ram Sale December 2024 OFF-ROAD LIVIN’ ashburtoncanam.co.nz 445 West Street, Ashburton, 7700 zach@ecptimaru.co.nz 64 3-307 4846 temperament issues and he’s continually assessing their situation. Animals are scanned when velvet is collected. This gives Craig all the history on the animal and assists him to make deer selection decisions. “I write down comments on every stag regarding their behaviour, velvet quality, weight to ensure they are still in great condition.”
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