Recession? What recession? Hill country farmers are wondering what the fuss is about. For the first time in three years they've gone into autumn with plenty of feed, their stock in healthy shape and with good prices in the markets. And they have several profitable stocking options to choose from. One of those is deer reports The Dom Post. It's not only lamb prices that are high. The venison schedule is higher than it has ever been at this time of year - at $8.45 a kilogram it is well above the $7.32 of the previous boom in 2001 - and one company is offering a $10 contract for July. The years in between have been lean ones and farmers have drastically cut back herd numbers. As the schedule languished around the $3 to $4 mark over five years, the national deer kill rose to 770,000 in 2005 before beginning a slide that has not yet ended. This season's kill is just under 600,000 and expected to reach 400,000 next year. At the same time, the number of deer farmers has fallen from 4300 in 2002 to 3000 today. Almost a third fewer breeding hinds are on farms today than when farmers rushed to join the boom seven years ago. Harsh lessons were learnt in the boom's aftermath and farmers are wary of reliving them. They're not rushing back. Which suits the deer industry nicely. It also does not want to see the boom-bust cycle continue. But it does want to see reasonable growth and Deer Industry NZ is asking farmers to keep 10 -12% more hinds on the farms for future breeding. This, it expects, will take care of what has become a steadily expanding market in Europe. Years of promotion and in-store tastings have awakened diners to the subtle flavour of farm-raised venison. All many have known is the strong wild venison that overwhelms meals. With a seasonal kill of 600,000 animals, exporters can service the key European and United States markets and still leave them wanting more. With 400,000 the industry will survive but lose the benefit of that hard promotional work. Throwing a shadow over these plans is the recession. Farmers in New Zealand may not be experiencing it, but it is a big worry in Europe. It is out of the main consumption season for venison - that is the two winter months of November and December - and European importers and distributors are having to guess what the demand will be later this year. They are buying frozen New Zealand venison now to keep till then, in the hope restaurants and shoppers will still want it.
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