Deer are a unique animal to New Zealand farming and ever since the early days of deer farming have played a large part in the practice. In the latter years there has been a drop off in the number of deer farmers in Nelson due largely to poor returns and changing land use, but as a veterinary practice we still work with around 40 dedicated deer farmers.
We are very fortunate to have one of our vets, Andrew Conway, who is a deer farmer himself. Andrew is active on the Deer Branch of the New Zealand Veterinary Association, a member of The NZ Deer Farmers Association (NZDFA) and one of two Veterinary representatives on the National Velvet Standards Body (NVSB). For more information visit their web site; www.deernz.org . In addition Andrew is a trainer and auditor for National Quality Veterinary Standards (NQVS) in respect of TB Testing in deer and cattle.
Services that The Vet Centre offer to deer farmers include TB testing, Velvetting Artificial Breeding programmes and Pregnancy scanning of deer. Additionally, nutritional advice (including feed budgeting), disease prevention programmes and management consultancy are all provided.
Commonly encountered diseases of deer include Yersiniosis, Leptospirosis, parasites including Tick infestations and Copper Deficiency
The majority of the deer farmed in Nelson are European Red Deer, either imported recently or derived from original stock of European descent from the New Zealand wild (Rakia or Nelson West Coast strains). Some farms breed Elk or Wapiti, or hydrids of this type for meat producing farms where these larger animals are used as terminal sires. The Elk type animal are more prone to some health issues, such as parasites, compared to the hardier Red Deer which are smaller in frame but breed more consistently with on average less health issues. In addition, they are considerably easier to manage in deer handling facilities.
If you want more information about deer farming or health issues associated with farming deer, please contact us with your query.
