Deer farmers stand test of time in Bay

Stags this week at Maranoa Deer Farm, near Takapau, where the farm's 26th annual stag sale takes place on December 13. The Wilkins Farming North Island red deer sale will be held later in the day at George and Laura Williams' Te Maire, north of Tikokino. Photo/Supplied.

Two annual deer sales in Central Hawke's Bay next week throw a new spotlight on a New Zealand deer farming industry many regard as still growing despite a reputation as the largest and most advanced in the world.

The sales on Friday next week John Spiers' 26th annual event at Maranoa Deer Farm, south of Takapau on Takapau- Ormondville Rd, and South Island company Wilkins Farming's North Island red sire stag sale at George and Laura Williams' Te Maire, northwest of Tikokino off Mattheson Rd.

The Maranoa sale starts at 1.30pm, and the Te Maire sale, in its third year, starts at 4.30pm.

They are the first of seven deer sales to be held in the just over a week in the North Island, while a smaller number of sales in the south includes Wilkins Farming's South Island red sire stag sale also on December 13, at its base between Athol and Five Rivers in Northern Southland.

Among the other North Island sales is the small Windermere sale in Waikato on December 16, in its 23rd year but being held for the last time as another farmer exits an industry which like other livestock farming faces the challenges of land availability and other issues posed by the continuing expansion of dairying.

"We've probably stood the test of time, but a lot of others have come and gone," said Mr Spiers, who has been farming deer in Hawke's Bay since 1978 and who has been a president of the New Zealand Deer Farmers Association and a director Deer Industry NZ.

Maranoa Deer, developing its herd from eastern European lines, and which has twice won the Velexco premier award for commercial velvet production, is offering about 30 stags, focusing on breeding for the venison market.

The foothills of Hawke's Bay, Taihape and Manawatu are regarded as good breeding areas, and the sale attracts 30-40 registered buyers each year looking for venison genetics to get early growth rate into their stags, Mr Spiers said.

Deer were introduced to New Zealand 152 years ago, mainly in the Southern Alps and foothills. Dreams of establishing a recreational hunting mecca were offset by damage to fragile flora and fauna as numbers increased, and by the mid-1900s they were officially regarded as a pest.

The first farming licence was issued in 1970 to farmer Rex Giles, of Rahana Station, near Taupo, a decade later there were 1540 deer farms with about 120,000 head, about 85 per cent red deer, and a decade later the population was well over 1 million.