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The Muster- Peter Allan: Positives For The Price Of Velvet · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Peter Allen is a deer farmer based at the Glen Ewer.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I heard him chuckling away in the background there, so
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: he must agree with the song. Piano Man by Billy Joel.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Pete.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, love it. Love a bit of Billy Joel. Makes
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: me smile. No, thanks, Andy. Appreciate that.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: We spoke to you last time up there. You're not
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: far away from the Caroline Valley, the Glen Ewers exactly,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: just out of Balfour. It was pretty wet. Have things changed?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: A little bit. Every now and then it just reminds
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: us that we're still in spring. Like I said to
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: you off air, Andy, Friday was just atrocious there. My
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: wife Diane and I spent the whole day sorting up
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: 350 hinds into five respective fawning mobs and it just
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: snowed and sleeted all day and then The next day
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: it'd come out not too bad, and we just don't
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: seem to get two days the same. But that's spring
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: in Southland.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: How are your feed levels looking then, all things considered?
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: They were not too bad. All the young grasses, and
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: we're trying to save up paddocks. There's just a game
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: of chess still at the moment with maximum stock units on.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Nothing's headed off farm at the moment. And winter crops
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: finished a while ago. Some of the covers are not
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: too bad, but some are very, very short. we could
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: do with a bit more growth and a bit more heat,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: and it's about consistency. But, you know, the condition of
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the animals, not too bad, really.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: What's it like for pagging with deer?
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you do certainly get a lot of it. But
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: there's been a lot of reparatory work done that I've
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: had to do in the last month, but a lot
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: of that has been on runoff from their winter crops.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: The younger animals are not too bad, and it's more
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: tracking than anything. We don't get fence tracking so much
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: here because we spend so much time and effort putting
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: shelter bouts up. So when you've got a site screen there,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: they don't walk fence lines. So that's not an issue.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's like everything else. The older the stags,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: they do have a decent footprint.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: When do you start wrapping up some supplements or is
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that after Christmas?
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we never get into it too early here because
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: of the amount of animals we have on plus animals. Also,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: we don't normally do any baitage until February, March. It
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: sounds a little bit later, but it works pretty well here.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: We're still putting in crop paddocks quite late this year,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: maybe even into January. We'll just see what happens. We're
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: about to get a digger in here for the next
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: 10 days, and that's a month behind schedule, but I
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: won't expand on the reasons for that. everybody seems to
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: want them at the moment. So now our son will
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: be here for the next 10 days, but I haven't
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: sort of managed to get off the end of the shovel.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: So hopefully that'll sort itself out in the next few years.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Those calluses on your hands will never get the chance
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: to heal, Pete. That's just the nature of the game.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The one thing you do with velveting is you
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: get pretty soft hands because you're in water, you know,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: 50 times a day. So no, that's not an issue.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: But look, one thing I wanted to touch on today, Andy, um,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: And it's prudent and pertinent we just sorted up hinds
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: into fawning mobs. And I've had discussions with certain farmers
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: over the years. There is still far too high a
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: loss in fawn loss from displacing and misadventure is probably
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the best word. And farmers need to be a little
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: more vigilant on their paddocks, and particularly the gates at
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: the end of tree lanes and things like that. And
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: after a winter where there's deeper tyre marks through gateways.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Because it doesn't take a lot for a fawn to
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: get out of that fawning paddock. And once it gets
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: out of that paddock, it's basically the end of its life.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: And I know that sounds really harsh, but sometimes you
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: have to speak like that to get the message through.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Once those fawns get under a gate into the next paddock,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: they won't come back because they don't have the ability
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: at a few days old or a few hours old
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: to get back. And it's just a simple matter of
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: either filling up the big holes under gateways with rock
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: or gravel or flat bottom posts and things like that,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: but tightening up your chains and things. People just need
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: to go around every paddock. Like we had 28 gates
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: around the six forming paddocks. It sounds like a lot, but,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: you know, there's some corners that have got four gates
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: into four different paddocks. And, you know, I took about
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: 85 ton over a period of week and We've got
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: some good rotten rock here, and it's far better than
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: putting in posts underneath gateways and things like that. But yeah,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: it still surprises me that some people do lose more
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: than they actually need to.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: How realistic is it to hand rear fawns?
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Well, my wife's done it quite a few times, and
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: they make incredible pets, especially the little fellow. There's nothing better.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: That's probably a little bit biased, but no, they make
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: amazing pets. And you can take them off their mums
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: at a day old just after they've had their first
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: drink of colostrum because the fawns, when they're born, they'll
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: have probably upwards of nine or ten feeds a day
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: for the first week. And a lot of people don't
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: even realise that the hinds have got four milking teats,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: a lot of glandular milk in a deer. And, no,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: we've successfully raised fawns. A lot of people will raise
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: red fawns and they turn into wonderful pets, so... Quite easy.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: You can get them onto things like lamb teats or
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: you can actually just have them sucking out of, say,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: an ice cream container from starting on your finger and
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: things like that. So no, we've done it a few times.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: So as far as fawns, I don't know, venturing away
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: from mum and not coming back, how often would that
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: occur every year, would you say, on average?
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Well, you don't know until they're dead and you go
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: and mow your paddock and things like that because you're
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: leaving those animals to do their own thing. and the
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: human interference, you just stay away. So you only find
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: all these things out retrospectively. So it's like a lot
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: of things in life. You know, prevention's the best cure there.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: As far as the venison and velvet schedules or seasons
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: or the likes, what are we predicting?
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, venison has been very stable and still looking
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: very stable, but, you know, it's also on the back
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: of lesser production, so therefore we're not having to... look
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: for any more markets is probably the best way to
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: describe that at the moment. We're probably undersupplying some of
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the top-end markets of anything with venison. Now, velvet, Andy,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: last year was probably one of the worst years in
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the last 25 years. We had an oversupply, an overhang
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: of velvet into China, and the price, well, crashed is
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: probably a little bit harsh, but certainly not a lot
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: of tax paid from a lot of farmers from velvet
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: last year. We thought it would take a couple of
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: years to turn around, but price is out already, and
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: indications are that things could turn around quite quickly. And
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: it's on the back of a couple of major Chinese
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: buyers that didn't actually buy last year, and they probably
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: didn't predict that it was going to come up this quick.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: So the demand is looking good, but it's also on
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: the back of quite a significant kill of velveting stags
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: last year, and kudos to all the venison companies for
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: accommodating that, and it looks as though it might turn
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: around to be not too bad a season, but we
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: never know until the season's done.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: It's incredible how it's changed in 12 months, like you say.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. But like a lot of things, you don't count
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: your chickens until they're in the bank, as far as
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: that goes.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: That's for sure. Hey, just to wrap up, Pete. you've
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: been a big fan of your tennis over the years.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: The Northern Southland Tennis Sub-Association, or sub-union, I suppose, their
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: 100th is coming up next March up in Te Anau.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Regos are open. This will be a good weekend.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Should be, Andy. Yeah, everybody that's been involved. I was
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: incredibly lucky. I was chairing Northern Tennis at the time.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: We had four club centenaries. So, no, it was a
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: wonderful period. And, you know, everybody should get on board. and,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: you know, put the entries in, early, early indications. So
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: I know that's good and looking forward to it.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Pete. We'll let you carry on in
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the trenches quite literally. Catch up to you next time.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Andy.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Peter Allen, deer farming up there at Balfour. Yeah, the
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Northern South and Tennis Centenary, 19th to the 21st of March, 2027.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Facebook page is up and running. Get involved. Tom Shellard's next.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Feeling all right.