Livestock report: Deer industry tackling a soft velvet market

PGG Wrightson national deer and velvet manager Tony Cochrane spoke to Jamie Mackay about the market on The Country. Photo / Bevan Conley

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The two income streams of the deer industry seem to be heading in opposite directions, according to PGG Wrightson national deer and velvet manager Tony Cochrane.

The velvet market is looking a bit soft at the moment, while venison is looking “pretty positive,” Cochrane told The Country’s Jamie Mackay.

The upset with velvet was due to a Chinese market access issue from December last year, he explained.

The sector set up a deer velvet access group with the Ministry for Primary Industries to work with the Chinese Government.

While this was successful, there were a few knock-on effects from the delay, Cochrane said.

“We managed to get that over the line, albeit a month or two late, so that was sort of used by the market as a reason for not making early purchases this season.”

However, there was another issue lurking “unbeknownst to us,” Cochrane said.

“One large importer stockpiled a huge amount of stock, thinking that there was no access, [and] they’d have the lion’s share.

“That hasn’t happened and so they’ve dropped their price by 20% which has really upset things here in New Zealand.”

PGG Wrightson hadn’t sold stock yet, on client instructions, but others were selling cheap, and stock was moving, he said.

It was a bit of a balancing act.

“We’ve got to shift out stock, there’s no doubt about that, we need to pay farmers — cash flow is king.

“But we also need to manage our levels so that in the future we’ve got a strong proposition going forward, not a boom/bust volatile industry.”

Meanwhile, the sire-stag selling season has started.

Mackay asked what effect this would have on the velvet market.

Cochrane said velvet had “a big bearing” on stag sales.

“People use their velvet money to purchase new genetics, so we are concerned about that.”

While the venison schedule was currently strong, he thought there could be issues with cash flow for velvet sire stags.

PGG Wrightson’s had a new product just hitting the market called “Defer-A-Stag” which could lend “a helping hand,” Cochrane said.

Overall, there was still plenty of top-quality stock available, he said.

“There’s going to be some top animals out there and I think the people that really want these animals will still buy.”

Also in today’s interview: Cochrane looked forward to heading to Invercargill for the National Velvet and Hard Antler Competiton and awards this weekend.