Nov 13, 2025
In last month’s DFA Stagline we reported on the second mixed species field day, held at the Burden family’s farm, Longbrook, in the Hawkes Bay. These field days are jointly organised by BLNZ, DINZ and NZDFA branches and the latest was held at Westview Farm in the Manawatu two days ago and hosted by Matt Carroll (farmer and BakerAg consultant).
A more in-depth article is planned for the December issue of Deer Industry News and hopefully Country Wide, but here a few photos from the day.
Farmers from Taihape, Manawatu and Hawkes Bay in attendance.
Around 40 people turned up to Westview in Pohangina Valley on a warm but overcast day with passing showers. Following the same format to the Hawkes Bay event, Matt ran through the financial benefits of a diversified operation as well as matching stock classes with the farm’s productive potential (and environmental constraints).
Similar to Longbrook, Westview is a challenging farm: steep hill to rolling land and very little area for cropping. It also borders the Ruahine ranges so there is added consideration of wild animals and stock losses as well as boundaries that are impractical to fence off. The farm is a truly diverse operation: sheep, beef, dairy, venison, velvet (a new focus), forestry and carbon farming. No cash crops are grown as the focus is on providing sufficient feed for the stock.
You can’t beat the Manawatu on a good day! Up near the boundary and the clouds.
The brains trust. Ginny Dodunski talks about all things parasites.
A few other snippets from the day:
- Don’t fully stock the deer unit (allow for a one third “buffer”)
- In practical terms all three livestock classes (sheep, cattle deer) can graze without cross contamination of parasites.
- Forestry provides a better return than sheep on LUC class 7 land but needs to be close to the road. No pines have been put into carbon forestry.
Shane Carroll talks cropping, irrigation, dairy and flood management.
Back at the woolshed First Light put on a nice feed of venison patties. There were plenty of questions and discussion throughout the day and for the sheep and beef farmers in attendance hopefully a good appreciation of opportunities to expand their business as well as the support available from the NZDFA and industry.
As this is now a busy time of year for deer farmers, there will be no more field days for the rest of the year. BLNZ, DINZ and NZDFA will review future field days but if branches are interested in this topic please get in touch with Lindsay Fung (lindsay.fung@deernz.org).
