If you missed our inaugural State of the Industry report in the March DINZ eNews, now’s a good time to catch up.

Autumn is certainly a game of two halves for deer farmers with velvet operations largely under control, apart from keeping stags fed, watered and wrecking as little infrastructure as possible. Conversely breeding programmes and weaning have been in full swing with long days in the deer shed for many.

For a second year in a row at the Southland Ballance Farm Environment Awards, a deer farming family has taken out top honours with Top Deck Trading (Tony, Michelle and Kate Roberts and Mark Lieshout) being crowned this year’s Southland Regional Supreme Winners.

Four nominations were received for the two vacancies created by the retirement by rotation of current members, Evan Potter and Karen Middelberg, and one vacancy created by mid-term retirement of Mark McCoard.

If you’re looking to revisit parasite management to protect weaners at a time when they are most susceptible, there’s a valuable deer health webinar recording worth keeping on hand.

Executive report: Mark McCoard | Top Deck Trading Are the Top Cats | Nomination Results for the 2026 Industry Leadership Positions | State of the Industry report: Checking the pulse of the deer sector | A useful refresher on deer parasites

Farm plan clock ticking in Southland | MSD/Allflex Deer Industry Photo Competition | Job interest | Joke of the month