Hawke's Bay deer farmers pay record $102,000 for a stag

Two Hawke's Bay men have set a New Zealand record, paying more than $100,000 for a velvet stag at a recent sale in Southland.

At the Brock Deer Sire and Stag sale, Hawke's Bay deer farmers Jeremy Dearden and Grant Charteris paid $102,000 for the prized velvet stag, $12,000 higher than the previous New Zealand record.

Elliot Brock, of Brock Deer, told Andy Thompson on The Muster radio show that they were over the moon with the haul but that they were expecting to get something in that region.

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"He's amazing from top to bottom," Brock said.

"We were hoping for something around that value because we held him in very high regard."

Charteris, from Forest Road Farm in Tikokino, and Dearden, from Top Rocky Red Deer in Maraekakaho, had their eye on him right from the beginning and had done a lot of planning.

"We had been looking for the perfect opportunity to do this and it's expensive for us individually so we got together and worked things out with him being the one for us," Charteris said.

The three-year-old velvet stag, which they have now named Lazarus, is in prime condition weighing in at 228kg and comes from good velvet pedigree, making him the perfect breeding stag.

"We knew we would have to fork out a fair bit to get him. But in the end it's all worth it because he's going to do a lot to further grow and better our herds," Charteris said.

"He just ticked all the boxes as far as we were concerned."