Sales - 2019
Just as you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge a stag by his appearance. This year we progeny tested the biggest spiker from one of the herds that have been purchasing our stags for many years. The spiker certainly looked the part but his progeny didn’t perform well, he only ended up with a 12MthBV of around 9 kg. For whatever reason, perhaps being well reared by an older hind, his genotypic performance didn’t match the phenotypic. We know that that this can happen which is why Deer Select is so damn useful. Disappointing, but keeps us on the right track.
On the topic of spiker mating we had a surprising result from the DNA analysis this year. One of our spikers 404/16 had 43 progeny identified. Allowing for the usual loss of fawns with first fawners it appears this spiker mated around 48 yearling hinds. Just shows what’s possible and obviously spikers can be mated to more hinds than the usual recommendation of a ratio of 1:10 hinds.
While the October venison schedule came back from $12/kg to $10/kg cwt this year, it is still great. Our cull spikers again made 65kg cwt in mid-October, showing just how profitable deer finishing with fast growing deer can be.
Our breeding objectives remain the same with a heavy emphasis on growth but also factoring in temperament and structural soundness. Velvet is a lesser factor but we do try to give it some weighting as it means over say 6 years you can get quite a bit of your investment back.
We want to pack as much growth to 12mths in as small frame as possible (just like Angus cattle) maintaining the high level of inherent fertility of Red hinds. This is the ‘holy grail’ of all maternal breeders but as discussed last year we believe a slightly bigger hind is far more profitable.
This year’s sale catalogue reflects the drive towards moderate size with high 12Mth eBVs. We aim to have our stags ‘top out’ as 2 yr olds in the early 200kg range and at the same time have 12Mth eBVs in the mid + 20s.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. As always you can buy with confidence as we stand by our product.
Paul & Rae Hughes
Sale Day Weights
| Lot 1 | 176/17 | 213 kg |
| Lot 2 | 174/17 | 201 kg |
| Lot 3 | 105/17  | 222 kg |
| Lot 4 | 98/17  | 207 kg |
| Lot 5 | 118/17 | 212 kg |
| Lot 6 | 48/17  | 229 kg |
| Lot 7 | 94/17 | 207 kg |
| Lot 8 | 18/17  | 221 kg |
| Lot 9 | 37/17  | 258 kg |
| Lot 10 | 44/17  | 200 kg |
| Lot 11 | 135/17 | 225 kg |
| Lot 12 | 36/17  | 222 kg |
| Lot 13 | 108/17 | 214 kg |
| Lot 14 | 90/17 | 227 kg |
| Lot 15 | 174/17 | 229 kg |
| Lot 16 | 177/17 | 208 kg |
| Lot 17 | 88/17 | 201 kg |
| Lot 18 | Withdrawn | |
| Lot 19 | 52/17  | 219 kg |
| Lot 20 | 40/17  | 222 kg |
| Lot 21 | 152/17 | 230 kg |
| Lot 22 | 15/17 | 192 kg |
| Lot 23 | 86/17 | 196 kg |
| Lot 24 | 106/17 | 208 kg |
| Lot 25 | 70/17 | 194 kg |
| Lot 26 | 96/17 | 207 kg |
| Lot 27 | 73/17  | 211 kg |
| Lot 28 | 133/17  | 229 kg |
| Lot 29 | 26/17  | 209 kg |
| Lot 30 | 64/17  | 217 kg |
| Lot 31 | 84/17  | 218 kg |
| Lot 32 | 173/17  | 207 kg |
| Lot 33 | 63/17 | 199 kg |
| Lot 34 | 85/17 | 219 kg |
| Lot 35 | 140/17 | 203 kg |
| Average | 214 kg | |
