|
Brock Deer
|
contact.
|
Eddie Brock
|
address.
|
Merino Downs
R.D.5
Gore Southland |
|
ph.
|
03 207 6822
|
|
brock4@woosh.co.nz
|
|
url.
|
|
|
Hello and welcome to Brock Deer for the 7th Annual Stag and Hind Sale. Once again this year our sire and sale stags have raised the bar to a level which was once thought impossible. This year we have our first crop of Oakley (8.6kg @ 5) 2yr old stags, including our heaviest ever 2yr old stag; Y770 at 6.4kg SA2. The Swazi, Ice, Gandalf and Whiskey sons also continue to bolster the sale line-up with many more impressive 2yr olds coming through. Once again we will offer a variety of top quality Velvet, Trophy and Venison genetics, enabling you to select the animals that are most suited to your particular operation. We continue to farm our stud stock commercially, allowing our deer to perform to a high standard at their new homes. Having a web page is a new and different experience for us, so we will make every effort to keep this updated so you can get the optimum benefit and use from this site. |
|
Background History
Along with Lloyd Thayer, I started deer farming in 1978 with seven hinds. From this hobby, my passion and knowledge has grown to now being the proud operator of one of Southland’s top deer studs. By 1985 we identified that the fastest way to improve and make deer farming worthwhile was to invest in top quality genetics. Purchasing top genetics at top dollar has always been our belief and the main aim of our stud is being able to pass on better genetics to you. Velvet was the object that drew me into deer farming so has been our principle focus over the years. Selection of velvet sires and hinds is a never ending process, with the quality required lifting as every day goes by.
Our foundation sires included; Walter, Icarus and The Sicilian. These stags can still be often found in the background of our sire stags today. The introduction of Steinlager, Razim, Ell and Fester really kick started the stud and massive gains came from their progeny. The new generation of sires includes; Oakley, Everest, Ice and Swazi and the improvement in the progeny continues to astonish us and will continue into the future. As we began to build up our deer numbers and quality of velvet, we began investing in the trophy and growth rate traits, seeing the opportunity to develop the farm into a stud operation. This has basically got us to where we are today, allowing you to come in and select top quality sires and hinds depending on your stock and operation. We believe we always offer a large variety of top quality animals, bred to the best of our ability.
The Brock Deer stud officially started on the 31st January 2002 with the inaugural 2yr stag and yearling hind sale. Since then we have continued to improve our stud stock ten fold, through elite genetics and management practices. This year our 2yr old stags are once again better than last year, which has been the same every year, which represents the progress we continue to make. If you have never been to one of our sales, you’ve missed out on a unique selling experience to most other studs in the country. The deer are viewed in the shed, before the auction is held on the front lawn in a marquee. The stags ands hinds are videoed the day before and is shown while they are being auctioned.
Deer Efficiency
Because our primary focus in deer farming is velvet, deer efficiency has always been a highly focused point of the operation. It is our belief that efficiency is growing deer as quickly as possible for the first year, so that good kill weights and kill dates can be achieved. This must be balanced against the mature weight of the hind that has to be carried all year to produce the fawn. If hinds become too heavy, carrying capacity is compromised, if hinds are too light, yearling weights are compromised. We have endeavored to keep mature weights down and growth rates up in the search for efficiency.
The same holds true if not more so for stags in the velvet herd and a close eye is kept on the kgs of velvet cut per kg of stag carried.
As with all undertakings some compromises have to made and not everyone will see the same goals. We therefore make our decisions and know, only too well, that you will also make yours, especially if you have read this far.
|
|
|
|
|