British see exciting future for venison

Press, 13 March 1987, Page 18

British see exciting future for venison

Increasing numbers of British farmers are discovering a livestock that has been part of their forested or woodland scene for centuries —deer raising.

The president of the British Deer Farmers’ Association, Mr Peter Gray, said in Christchurch recently that the anticipated reduction of subsidy protection for a wide range of mainstay farming industries—such as sheepmeats, beef, pork and cereals—was turning the attention of British farmers to diversification opportunities. With such a large population as a domestic market, the venison side of the emerging deer industry had an exciting future, he believed, and the association would soon start actively promoting deer to other farmers.

The B.D.F.A. presence at the Royal Agricultural Show would be lifted and possibly a booklet produced along the lines of the New Zealand Deer Farmers’ Association publication “Deer—a profitable alternative.”

Peter and Lesley Gray toured New Zealand recently talking to deer farming leaders and making connections to do with his other line of business—that of farms manager for the J.C.B. Wooton Farms organisation, in Staffordshire.

J.C.B. is a large machinery manufacturer, represented in New Zealand by Gough, Gough and Hamer, whose founder was Mr J. C. Bamford. He was a black sheep of the Bamford family, which still heads an even larger machinery business in the U.K.

J.C.8., with 1400 employees, produces a very well-known line of backhoe loaders and diggers, now with telescopic booms, which Mr Gray said have such a market penetration in the U.K. that the latest Oxford Die-

tionary lists “J.C.8.” as a digger, in the same way as “Hoover” would have a mention as a vacuum cleaner. However this machinery empire is not really the business of the argumentative little Scot, as Mr Gray calls himself, but the oversight of 1500 ha of J.C.B. farms, including 400 ha of cereals, 600 cattle, 1600 breeding ewes and 500 deer. On several farms, 80kms north of Birmingham, he manages the Hereford and Friesian cross cattle, the Scottish Blackface, Leicester and Suffolk cross sheep and the Red deer.

The performances of the 250 hinds are being recorded to separate out 130 for an elite herd which will be put to the best that J.C.B. Deer can breed and buy.

J.C.B. has sent about 30 stags to New Zealand in recent years as part of a surge of interest among New Zealand deer breeders in historical bloodlines which promise more venison and velvet. English imported stags have now been largely superseded in Kiwi favouritism by central European sires, but Mr Gray said the U.K. deer industry can still offer worthwhile gains in performance to many New Zealand herds.

In reverse, the N.Z. deer industry has a size and determination that impresses the British deer president. “The scale of deer farming here, with the willingness of people involved to get on with it, really impresses me,” he said.

Among other visits, he had looked over the operations of . the N.Z.D.F.A. president, Mr lan Spiers, in Hawke’s Bay and the Mt Somers station of Mr Mark Acland. Talks with the D.F.A. and the Game Industry Board in Wellington were held also.

“Both our industries must stand or fall on venison marketing,” he said, "and anything that New Zealand does to lift venison consumption in many markets must benefit us also.”

At present many of the 150 members of the B.D.F.A. market their venison through a cooperative called the British Deer Producers’ Society which has a supply contract with the giant Waitrose supermarket chain.

Farmers receive about £3.20 ($9) a kg for venison sold in this way but could get perhaps £5.50 a kg through “gate sales” which are still legal in the U.K. for game meats.

Hinds were worth be tween £2OO and £5OO, stag calves about £75, hind calves around £250 and stags ranged from £5OO to £lOOO.

“We are trying to encourage livestock farmers to consider deer farming because any good stockman can cope with deer,” he said.

“The U.K. industry needs a big expansion and I think it will come as the protection for other farming industries diminishes,” Mr Gray concluded.