Venison processing an essential service: Farmers, processing plants, and key elements of the supply chain that support farming and processors, will be considered “essential services” during the Covid-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown. This begins at 11.55 pm on Wednesday night and will last at least four weeks.

The escalation of Covid-19 infections around the world is having a serious impact on demand for New Zealand’s deer products. The degree to which this affects future returns will depend upon the speed with which countries can get the virus under control and allow normal commerce to resume.

A scientific study has shown that the quality of NZ deer antler velvet has greatly improved in the last three decades. It contains more of the lipids and proteins that are linked to the bioactivity of deer velvet products and their value as natural health foods.

In the study, funded by the deer industry and AgResearch, velvet antler harvested from red and elk/wapiti deer in the 2018/19 season was analysed and the results compared with a 1991 study. This showed the average velvet antler today is of higher quality than the best of the antlers analysed in the earlier study.

We face a once-in-a-generation challenge in addressing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated dislocation of the global economy

Parasite workshops now in your area: A series of deer parasite management workshops is now underway. The SI workshops, convened by Dave Lawrence, were expected to be completed this month, but some have been disrupted by the Southland floods. Look on the DINZ website for revised dates. The NI ones, convened by Pania Flint, run through March and April. Funding comes from the P2P programme, with assistance from the NZDFA and Ian Spiers Memorial Trust.

The good work deer farmers are doing to improve the health of their waterways is expected to have human health benefits.

“While there is a public focus on nitrogen, sediment is a more important issue for deer. Not only does it contain valuable topsoil, it contains faeces and phosphorus. Also, sediment can smother the streambed, making it inhospitable for much stream life,” says DINZ environmental stewardship manager Lindsay Fung.

Deer Industry NZ chief executive Innes Moffat says venison sales have not been seriously affected by the disruption to the Chinese market caused by the novel corona virus outbreak. Deer processing plants are working at normal capacity for this time of the year, with product flowing to major markets.

“China takes 50 per cent of New Zealand’s lamb and beef, nearly all of our mutton, but only 10 per cent of our venison. Our main venison markets are northern Europe and the United States. South Korea is our biggest velvet market, followed closely by China,” he says.

Deer Industry NZ has beefed-up its farmer services with the appointment of Phil McKenzie as manager farm performance, a new position. 

DINZ chief executive Innes Moffat says McKenzie is now managing the on-farm components of the industry’s Primary Growth Partnership programme, Passion2Profit (P2P), as well as the development of DINZ’s farm-facing services. In these roles he works closely with DINZ producer manager Tony Pearse and environmental stewardship manager Lindsay Fung.

Fancy having a say on what deer industry research is done and how it is implemented?  Apply to join one of the DINZ/AgResearch innovation steering groups.  There are 4 groups (on-farm, off-farm, improved breeding decisions and environment) and they will each be run as per these terms of reference.  Find out how to apply by clicking here.  We are currently recruiting for the on-farm, off-farm groups and improved bree

A dramatic increase in world meat prices in response to demand from China is likely to have a more muted effect on venison prices.

An outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) has resulted in half of China’s pig herd being killed since August 2018, pushing Chinese pork prices and meat imports to record highs. According to Reuters, Chinese meat imports will peak in 2022, before declining as domestic production recovers and prices ease.   

Velvet prices ease: Concerns about the increasing supply of velvet has meant some importers were reluctant to commit to orders early in the season, says DINZ marketing manager Rhys Griffiths. This is despite fundamental indicators remaining strong in key markets.

A fundamental requirement of an animal traceability scheme is that the tagged animal must be registered, not just tagged. But some farmers appear to believe it’s enough to buy and insert their NAIT tags. The next step, registering the animal with NAIT, is not happening.

Ensuring deer do well in the cold, wet months of winter is a priority for the deer industry

Deer Industry NZ supports He waka eke noa, the primary sector commitment to develop and implement an effective programme for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farming

Velvet markets steady: NZDFA branch chairs meeting in Wellington earlier this month were briefed on the state of the velvet market by DINZ Asia markets manager Rhys Griffiths and DINZ board member Tony Cochrane.
 
They said New Zealand’s reputation as a food producer and the quality of NZ velvet ensured that it had a strong reputation in both traditional and health food markets. However, they noted that demand will have to increase to absorb future production increases to maintain steady returns.