Puketira Dryland Hill Country

A profile of fourth generation dry land deer farmer Lyndon Matthews on his 270 ha North Canterbury hill country block.

Lyndon and wife Mille Matthews run 800 deer and 1500 sheep on their 270ha dry hill country property at Waikari.

Lyndon grew up on farm but shifted into rural banking as a career. While he was still off farm he persuaded his father to make room for deer on the property.

They started with 30 back in 1990. Lyndon and his wife moved back to the property in 1995 and have been lifting numbers ever since.

The property is limestone country with a climate and location that offers little in the way of irrigation possibilities. Its a challenge to run and Lyndon tries to do it in as sustainable way as possible.

His innovative pasture management and efforts to best utilize rainfall recently won Lyndon and Millie the 2008 New Zealand Deer Industry award for farming excellence in a demanding environment.

These awards celebrate role models who show how an environmentally sensitive approach can be part of a profitable farm business and can inspire and motivate others by example.

Judges for the awards were impressed by the way Lyndon plans for a sets production targets using feed and genetics to work within the tough climate hes farming in. In part that was a reflection of a good understanding of the soils hes farming on and the systems that work in that environment. He was also commended for moisture capture and the use of non traditional species.

Lyndons also identified challenges ahead looking for ways to avoid reliance on rainfall at key times making sure theres fawn cover in some areas but balancing that with pasture management. Hes also got plans for further development and retirement of wetland areas along with the protection and planting of non productive areas of the property.

The S word seems to have become increasingly popular in the deer industry as the Cervena brand continues with a marketing push into overseas markets.

In 2008 Lyndon was chosen to present a seminar focusing on how New Zealands sustainable farming practices impact the quality and taste of Cervena Venison at an International Culinary Conference in the US. He was chosen from a nationwide search of New Zealands Cervena farmers whose practices are outstanding examples of sustainability.

His message to the assembled US chefs was simple allow the animals to be raised naturally in an open pasture environment while feeding them very well. Well fed deer are happy and healthy. They grow quickly, with no stress. And that produces a tender, quality product.

In 2009 Lyndon looked at stock numbers on the property and reduced sheep to make room for more deer.

Modelling carried out on Puketiras deer numbers using FARMAX - showed deer breeding and finishing was returning 20c/kg DM (on a venison schedule of $7.50/kg) while sheep breeding is generating 14.8c/kg DM (lamb worth $5/kg). Velvet stags were returning 13.2c/kg DM at a velvet price of $60/kg and 16.8c/kg DM if velvet is worth $80kg net.

The breeding hinds are put to a terminal sire for the fast-growing weaners, but the terminal sire is backed up with a Red stag as an insurance against stag failure. Deer Improvement genetics have been used for breeding replacements and as these genetics are coming into the breeding females, they are now starting to see progress in Red weaner growth rates.

To make room for ewes and lambs, the Matthews need to get the weaner deer finished and ready for sale by the beginning of September. The couple have their first draft at the beginning of September and draft fortnightly after that until all the weaners are gone. One third of the weaners (the hybrids) are killed in September, the Reds are killed in October and the final third gone in November.

Lyndon says hes been able to lift carcase weights over the years and the average in 2009 was sitting a 60kg, while in the hinds it was 55kg. He says in the early days of farming deer they used to be pleased if they got a 50kg CW; he says the progress is a result of better feeding and genetics.

They start working towards the carcase weight targets from late December. They start feeding hinds to keep them lactating and keep the calves growing. Lyndon says he would rather feed them at that stage than keep both hinds and calves on half rations through summer. The calves are weaned at the end of February, which gives the hinds time to recover body condition before mating.

Last season on the back of a good autumn the first calvers scanned 92% while the mixed-age hinds mated to hybrids and Reds scanned 98%. Survival to sale was 85% across the whole herd.

Velvet stags are a relatively new class of stock on Puketira and the mixed-age stags are producing an average of 3.5kg of velvet, while this season the velvet from the two-year-old averaged 2.5kg, a lift of .5/kg on the previous year. Lyndon believes this lift was as a result of better feeding. He says they are still learning about velvet, but in theory velvet stags fit Puketira's dry environment very well.

The Matthews mixed-age composite ewe flock isnt being left behind in an all-out focus on deer. The survival to sale of 138%-150%; (last season it was 150%) this year all lambs were finished at an average 16.5kg CW. Perhaps more exciting was the performance of the hogget flock which had a survival to sale of 100% from a scanning of 130%. The reproductive performance of the young sheep bodes well for the future of the ewe flock.