Fleet-footed deer development

Press, 11 May 1984, Page 17

Fleet-footed deer development

Developing a 270 ha deer unit, capable of carrying 1300 deer, on the mainly southerly and easterly aspect slopes of Mt Somers is Mr Mark Acland’s idea of a challenge. So keen was he to get started that the previous owner of Mt Somers station, the late Mr Bob Burnett, allowed work on deer fencing to begin four months before possession date. A pioneer in the deer industry, Mr Acland had already lifted deer numbers on Waikari Hills station, next to his brother John Acland’s Mt Peel property in the Rangitata Gorge, to over 800 by August last year, when the move took place. Mark Acland actually bought 6325 ha of Mt Somers

station (875 ha were retained by Mr Burnett) and moved thousands of sheep by road from Mt Peel to Mt Somers to stock the high country.

But it was the deer unit on the flat above the Ashburton Gorge road behind Mt Somers township which people came to see on a recent field day organised by the Canterbury and South Canterbury branches of the Deer Farmers’ Association.

In just 12 months since unofficial possession in May 1983, 11km of permanent deer fencing has been erected and a further 16km of normal fencing upgraded with two hot wires on top for deer-proof internal subdivision. . As well a new deer handling and loading shed and associated yards have been constructed and, with the fencing, expenditure to date has been $95,000.

With around 1100 deer on the unit now, it is still not fully deer stocked. Mr Acland believes the deer unit could cope with 1300 deer, for a total of 3100 stock units from deer plus the sheep and cattle which are run within the high fences. A lift in deer stock units to this level would raise total stock units on Mt Somers to around 20,000. Presently grazing the half-developed 4000 effective hectares on the property are 10,000 Coopworths, 5690 Halfbreds and 612 (3190 s.u.) cattle. Of the remaining land, 1750 ha have been retired, including the high southerly slopes of Mt Somers (1675 m and 575 ha are bush, scrub and riverbed.

Since he bought the property in 1968 Mr Burnett had cultivated llOOha and oversown and topdressed a further IOOOha, while 1900 ha of the effective farming area remains in native pasture.

Mr Acland cut 270 ha off the cultivated and oversown flats for the deer unit but he hopes eventually to bring another 356 ha into the unit for a further 2500 stock units of capacity. His management objectives also include a minimum of 20 per cent of

carrying capacity in stock units other than deer in the unit.

Mr Acland purchased and captured his first deer in 1976 and by 1978 had 100 or more in a 140 ha unit on Waikari Hills.

At the time of the big move to Mt Somers he was running 841 deer, 444 owned and 397 run for investors, 1 with a 25 per cent share himself in this section. A farm consultant from Ashburton, Mr John Tavendale, explained that five alternative strategies were identified at the time of moving from Waikari Hills to the Mt Somers deer unit. 1. Sell total deer interest (for $0.5 million) and stock the 270 ha with sheep costing $120,000 and have $380,000 for development.

2. Sell self-owned deer to investors (worth $281,000) buy the sheep and have $161,000 for development.

3. Sell self-owned deer to investors but continue to farm the deer with new facilities (cost $95,000) and have $186,000 for development.

4. Introduce a new investor (at $100,000) and have $28,000 net from share of stock but nothing for development. 5. Continue status quo, requiring $95,000 for deer facilities and having nothing for development. After working out the potential of the five alternatives, Mr Tavendale found that the last three had in-come-earning projections 2.5 to 3 times the first two, where sheep were planned for the unit.

But there was a large difference in capital required for the five options. For livestock and facilities, not land, but including the $380,000 development capital that would come available under the first option and would have to be borrowed for some of the other options. The capital requirements were: 1, $426,000 (22 per cent return on capital); 2, $645,000 (10 per cent return); 3, $979,000 (25.7 per cent); 4, $981,000 (27.7 per cent) and 5, $1,030,000 (27.1 per cent). Option four was adopted by Mark Acland, who was

keen to develop the unit to its maximum potential and “loves deer” according to Mr Tavendale. Mr Acland said he was happy working with offfarm investors.

At present he employs a stock manager, Mr Malcolm Clapperton, a head tractor driver, two contract fencing gangs and four single men. The development pace which has been set in the last year shows no signs of slackening off. Mr Mike Harwood, an M.A.F. officer from Invercargill who specialises in deer, made a plea at the field day for earlier weaning on Canterbury deer farms. He maintained that pre-roar weaning of previous year’s fawns would give up-to-date information for stag and hind selection going into the roar. The winter rotation could be started earlier and if hinds were separated from their fawns and fed well for a short period before letting the stags out then any problems with dries would largely disappear. It would help produce a more concentrated calving which would be a help with recording.

He also maintained that supplementary feed had to be of a high quality and that

a deer farmer who took some time over feeding of fawns, in particular, could see dividends in animal behaviour.

Mr Malcolm Clapperton, after explaining that he was new to deer farming, said that having ewes and cows in the deer unit gave extra flexibility in pasture management. The top stags were selected for the roar (seven stags for 380 hinds) by picking out the top 35 velveting stags and then weighing them to find the top gainers. The president of the New Zealand Deerfarmers’ Association, Mr John Burrowes, said that the D.F.A. had 1500 members in 28 branches. In just 10 years the industry had grown to the extent that a one-day seminar, such as the Mt Somers one, could attract more people than an annual conference of the association in the early years. A director of the Stag Corporation, Mr Brett Waterfield, who is also on the Game Industry Association and Game Industry Board, said that freezing companies were looking enviously at the deer slaughter plants and game packing houses. But a strength of the deer industry had been that veni-

son was still regarded as game in export markets and mostly free of tariffs and duties.

If freezing companies were allowed to kill deer, perhaps on converted beef chains, that game status could be threatened, he said. Venison producers had to be on the guard against excessive fat cover, he warned. With a venison sauce a chef could disguise beef and if venison became generally more fatty its distinction from beef could be blurred.

Big increases in stag kills are expected this year because of the fall in the velvet market, something the new chairman of the Game Industry Board, Mr Tom Williams, was prepared to say a little about. Following a recent trip to Korea, he has said in a recent D.F.A. newsletter and repeated at Mt Somers that there was a world oversupply of Korean quality velvet.-

The velvet adulteration scandal had cut the market in that country to 10 or 20 per cent of its former strength. Quality was going to be very important in the future and he expected only the best quality to sell to Korea during the 1984-85 season.