Forest Road Deer Farm leads the way with sustainable velvet farming

Backing onto the Gwavas Forest which backs onto the Ruahine Ranges, Forest Road Deer.

Farm is 327 hectares of rolling to steep hill country at a high enough elevation to mean a colder climate than much of Hawkes Bay.

The nature of their land and its climate are one of the reasons why Grant and Sally Charteris are predominantly running a red deer velvet stud where, as Grant puts it, “We’re producing deer to breed for velvet and we’re breeding velvet producing deer for other people.” They hold an on-farm sale every December selling 15-20 three year old velvet sire stags and up to 100 yearling hinds for velvet breeding.

They run the deer in conjunction with a 60 strong Hereford cow herd, an essential part of the Charteris’ pasture management plan given that their rolling to steep terrain won’t take a topping tractor. “Deer are browsers, they pick and forage, so the cows are there to clean up the rougher pasture which means the deer can take what they want out of it without coming under any pressure so it allows them to fully express their genetic potential.”

Everything on the farm works around the stags’ natural rhythms and is targeted to ensure that the stags are in absolute peak condition when they start growing their velvet, despite the ravages of the roar which runs from late Feb through to the end of May.

“They start acting like teenagers with way too much testosterone,” says Grant with a laugh. “They can lose up to 30% of their body weight because all they’re interested in doing is roaring and chasing around and trying to find a hind, so we spread them out to give them plenty of personal space you might say.”

The deer are farmed in age groups, each with their priority times of year for extra feed or feed of higher quality. The velvet-producing stags feed ad-lib on kale from June 1^st . “We’ve found over the years that the best way to grow good velvet is to use that first month after the roar to pour as much high octane feed into them as possible to help them recoup their body fat. By the time they cast their buttons and are ready to grow velvet in August you need them in top condition, so that any extra feed you give them then is going straight into the velvet.”

Apart from their obvious success with the quality and quantity of velvet they’re producing, years of carefully planned hard work by the Charteris’ was recognized earlier this year with two awards at the Deer Industry Environmental Awards. It’s a win that Grant puts in part down to the regrouping he and Sally did after the tragic loss of his father Bruce in a farm accident eight years ago.

“He was my mentor and my sounding board,” says Grant. “So we subsequently engaged with Rural Coach and we had to write down what values were important to Sally, and what values were important to me, and then align those values and set some clear goals moving forward.

“It was a really robust process and put some structure into our business plan and I think the environmental stuff morphed from there because it was the base line of everything that we wanted to achieve: our marketing story, the products we’re selling, and our goal to create a platform the next generation can use to market anything they want to.”

The premier Elworthy Environmental Award recognized the Charteris’ stewardship of the land as well as their meticulous planning, documentation and analysis. “Stocking levels and feed manage ment are our main tools,” says Grant, ”and we base all our key decisions on the data we collect and analyse so we’re making the best use of what we’ve got with minimal input.”

In its first year, the Dr Gyong Jai Lee Award for “leading, environmentally sustainable, velvet farming”, underlines the increasing importance of sustainability for consumers both here and abroad. It’s at the heart of everything Sally and Grant Charteris do, and is obvious in their carefully thought out and instituted environmental farm plan.

They’ve already planted over 15,000 native trees with more to come; waterways are being fenced off, non-cultivated strips left to protect gullies, and care is taken when choosing which paddocks to use for cropping.

It’s his work with the stud that Grant most enjoys though, and there too he leaves little to chance, thanks to his carefully orchestrated use of cutting edge technology combined with a half share in “Lazarus”, a velvet sire from Brook Deer in Southland.

Together with friend, farmer and fellow enthusiast Jeremy Dearden the Charteris’ paid the top auction price of $102,000 for Lazarus two years ago.

Using AI and embryo transfer Grant is accelerating his breeding programme using only his absolute top hinds. “Effectively you’re getting a whole lifetime’s worth of breeding from your very top hinds to your very top stag.

To put in into figures, this year after scanning it worked out that Jeremy and I have 150 in-faun hinds each to Lazarus, whereas if we naturally mated him with half my hinds and half Jeremy’s we’d have at the most 40 each. “

At the end of the day Grant says it’s this work with the stud breeding and genetics that gets him out of bed each morning. “We’re not simple commodity traders, we’re passionate about velvet and deer and we want to leave behind a legacy for the next generation.”

We’re not simple commodity traders, we’re passionate about velvet and deer and we want to leave behind a legacy for the next generation.”

The deer are farmed in age groups, each with their priority times of year.