Deer farmers’ efforts rewarded

by Annette Scott

Farmers Weekly - Agribusiness - 3 June 2021

Grant and Sally Charteris are passionate about deer farming and keen to showcase their deer farming story.

There may be something magical in the water, when for the second successive year a Hawke’s Bay farming family has bagged the Deer Industry NZ premier environmental award. Annette Scott reports.

HAWKE’S Bay deer farmers Grant and Sally Charteris are keen to showcase sustainable deer farming in the best of modern farming practices.

The couple proved they are front-footing the farming challenges and achieving environmentally sustainable velvet farming by winning the 2021 Elworthy award, the premier environmental accolade for deer farmers.

The award was presented at the deer industry conference in Invercargill.

This is the second successive year that the premier accolade has been awarded to a Hawke’s Bay farm.

The previous winners were Evan and Linda Potter of Elsthorpe.

More recently, the Potters have been recognised as the winners of the 2020 East Coast Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

They also won the Gordon Stephenson Trophy, a national award in which recipients become ambassadors for sustainable farming.

Lead judge Janet Gregory says the eight entrants in the biennial deer environmental awards had many things in common, including active farm environment and business plans, and involvement in the deer industry’s productivity and environmental activities.

“All are leaders in the industry, show great passion and stewardship of the land, and are supporting their local communities,” Gregory said.

“Many of them have calculated their greenhouse gas emissions or are planning to do so.

“All were of exceptional standard, separated from each other by the narrowest of margins.”  

But she says Grant and Sally Charteris stood out for their meticulous planning, documentation and analysis that informs their stock and feed management in their district’s challenging climate.

Their Forest Road Farm is a 330ha red deer stud and velvet operation, harvesting three tonnes of velvet annually and selling three-year-old velvet sires and yearling breeding hinds at the annual on-farm sale.

The farm also runs Hereford beef cattle and a small flock of Wiltshire sheep.

Gregory says Forest Road Farm is a prime example of a sustainable farming business where the environment is being progressively protected and enhanced, with gullies and streambanks fenced off and planted in trees to reduce soil erosion and to minimise sediment run-off.

More than 15,000 native trees have been planted over the past three years on the rolling to steep hill country property, with more tree planting planned.

Soil protection is a key focus of everything done on the farm.

Care is taken when selecting paddocks for cropping and buffer strips of non-cultivated land are left alongside gullies.

Break-feeding of crops is avoided and high grass covers are maintained on pasture with progressive protection and enhancement of farm environment mitigating the biggest risks through gully protection.

Stock management is driven by attention to feeding and genetic improvement.

Both Grant and Sally are involved in their community and industry in their desire to help others into the agriculture industry.

They entered the awards to showcase sustainable deer farming.

“Farmers are getting a lot of unjustified bad press of late, and we wanted to fly the flag and to tell the good story of farming,” Grant said.

“Farmers are not perfect, but we are doing better than we are often perceived to be, we have our challenges and we are front-footing them.

“We also want to create a platform for the next generation to market profitable and sustainable product, and biodiversity and aesthetics are a big part of that working in stock management and animal health.

While a huge amount of work has been done on the farm, there is more planned for the next five years.

“There’s no such thing as a finished environment plan, we have a good solid plan in place to keep moving forward,” he said.  

As well as winning the premier Elworthy environmental award sponsored by SP Corporation and Dr Gyong Jai Lee, a major South Korean marketer of NZ deer velvet, the Charteris’ also won a new category award created and also sponsored by the SP Corporation, the Dr Gyong Jai Lee award for leading, environmentally sustainable velvet farming.

Award convenor Lindsay Fung says this is the first time a deer industry environmental award has been sponsored by an overseas customer.

“It underlines the importance of sustainability to consumers of New Zealand deer products in Asia as well as in other markets,” Fung said.

We are thrilled to have this level of interest and support for our awards.”