Advancing the velvet cause

He says sometimes he has to drive a long way to pick up and deliver which adds up in terms of time in the cab and away from home, but he uses his encounters with farmers up back roads to gauge how the industry is doing.

“I get really good feedback on what is happening – sometimes guys just want to bend my ear on some issue or other, but it’s a great opportunity to find out what’s happening with the deer and the farmers.”

It’s in the chats, leaning against the side of the truck or against the yard wall, Craig has picked up on information gaps in farmers’ knowledge. He thinks the industry and regional groups need to do a better job of feeding down scientific advances in plain English to farmers.

Craig is working on feeding palm kernel as a supplement through winter and monitoring its effect on deer condition and velvet growth. 

“Last year when we fed PKE the deer loved it and were definitely fatter by the end of winter – and interestingly only three out of 40 older stags went back on the previous year’s velvet weight.”

The result has spurred him into keeping 12 of his 10-year-old stags on, to be wintered in an age group on their own with the palm kernel supplement, to see what he can cut off them in velvet weight.

“They have held their weight and are increasing this year so it’s worth a try – especially with the velvet being worth so much,” Craig says. Velvet has been Craig’s focus since selling another farm where they produced venison. He has also has sold trophy stags, although he says it is difficult to produce both great trophy heads and heavy, high-quality velvet from the same genetics.

“It’s the same with velvet and venison – a lot of people have tried fruit salad stags, trying for venison and velvet, but the products are different, and if you want to do one thing properly either buy a proper velvet stag or a proper meat stag, and so with trophies some guys have strategically focused on them and followed the best dam lines.” 

‘You can cut their velvet and three hours later they are back in the paddock as happy as Larry – but they do get set in their ways and don’t particularly like change.’

He does enjoy the trophies and carting them to farms, although it’s an area where he has to take utmost care – any damage impacts hugely on the price. The NAIT regulations have now bedded in and Craig says there will be opportunities for farmers in terms of electronic ID – recording weights, auto drafting, preferential feeding and following bloodlines – when they invest in the technology to read the tags.

“The arrival of NAIT hasn’t changed the cartage at all, but has had more impact on the farmers – being charged if the animal arrives at the works or yards without their tag. We often unload the deer, only to find a couple of tags lying on the ground.”

Craig’s advice for farmers is to remove the old paddock tag and insert the NAIT tag into the old hole then it stays in securely.

“The problem seems to arise when farmers tag the animals in a brand new hole in the ear the night before carting them – or on the morning of pick-up – then the deer flaps its head around and tries to get rid of the irritation and they sometimes succeed.” 

Tech transfer

The Advanced Party concept has the potential to bring about a lot of change and technology transfer, Craig Hocken believes. The format of farmers helping farmers by getting out on each farm, talking about the issue, nutting out problems, making a plan and revisiting it monthly in a small group could prove a real winner.

“The group is able to drill down and talk about the issues that you often don’t get around to talking about at a discussion group with a bigger crowd.”

Craig is working on his clover persistence problems and has been given a list of alternative species that have worked for others that he is going to source, along with soil and herbage testing, to try and solve the problem.

“You have heaps of collective experience within a group of farmers that we can draw on and whilst you aren’t accountable to them, there is gentle peer pressure to keep trying out the changes.”