Productivity the best investment in deer

Improved deer carcass weights through better use of technology and shared knowledge is the aim of a new focus farm initiative that had its first field day last week. Riversdale farm consultant Alastair Gibson said the aim was for farmers to gain confidence to make changes to their systems and operations to boost performance reports The Southland Times. "We want you to develop confidence and a good understanding of farming systems," he told more than 60 farmers who attended the open day at George and Mary Scott's finishing property near Pukerau.Declining returns and pressure from dairy conversions had seen deer numbers fall, but it appeared numbers were now stabilising. That would help to stabilise prices as well but there was little that could be done to alleviate the impact of the foreign exchange markets, attendees were told. Deer Industry New Zealand chairman John Scurr said the sector had dealt with its high-volume phase prudently "“ kill levels peaked at 780,000 animals in 2005 and have declined since then. The sector was facing a decline in consumption because of the global economic crisis and lower-priced beef, so it was not a bad time to be dealing with lower volumes, he said. The next step for New Zealand deer farmers was to improve productivity, Mr Scurr said. Good operators could always achieve good performance so the aim was to get the rest of the industry to lift production quality. The aim of the focus farm programme was to help farmers use the same land and the same number of animals to increase their fawning performance, reduce wastage and produce better weighted animals through better knowledge and pasture management, he said. "Anything to do with production improvement is a pretty good investment."