Waikato deer breeder Todd Crowley set a new national record when one of his velvet-trophy stags was bought for $390,000 in December.
The price more than doubled the previous record of $155,000 set at his sale the previous year.
A new record was also set for a velvet stag in Southland earlier this month when two Hawke’s Bay buyers paid $102,000 for a three-year-old at Brock Deer’s annual sale.
Velvet last season made $132 a kilogram and while it was still too early to know how this coming year would play out, DINZ markets manager Rhys Griffiths said he expected it to be 5-10 per cent back.
Similarly, venison has come off its schedule peak of $9.57/kg last year to $8.37/kg. DINZ marketing manager Nick Taylor said it was too early to know what this coming season’s price would be.
While prices had come back, it was still up on the five-year average for venison, he said.
Crowley said the rise of syndicate buying – where deer farmers pool their resources together to buy a specific stag – contributed to the high prices.
“The very top stags are creating a lot of interest and getting really good money,” he said.
Once bought, the syndicate then sell the stag’s semen and earn back the purchase price.
“Then a lot of people have access to the very top genetics.”
The buyer of the record-breaking stag wished to remain confidential, he said.
“The rest of the sale went really well. We sold another one for $75,000 and one for $30,000 and a few in the twenties [thousand]. They averaged $51,500.”
Eddie Brock of Brock Deer said their stag won the people’s choice award at the National Velvet Awards in December, where deer farmers voted for what they thought was the best stag.
He said the final price was close to where he thought it would land and he immediately knew it was a record as it broke the $90,000 mark paid for a velvet stag last year.
Two thirds of Brock’s catalogue at this year’s sale featured sons of the record-breaking stag’s sire, Joseph.
He was pleased with the rest of the sale, with the stags on offer averaging just under $17,000 and the next top price after the record price at $50,000.
While the velvet market had dropped slightly on last year, Brock said farmers were still prepared to pay top prices for good genetics.
“Things are still good, even though velvet is back around 10%. It’s a slight correction from two years ago.”
On a velvet head, the most valuable part of it was above its trez and as a two-year-old its velvet weighed just under six kilograms.
“It had a huge proportion of top-quality velvet above that point and it was very thick and round.”
PGG Wrightson stud coordinator Graham Kinsman said the sales have gone well.
“Prices in some cases are back a little and bear in mind venison is back a little, velvet is back a little and the bigger part of the industry is made up of older established deer farmers so when they go to improve those genetics they go to something at the top end as opposed to further down the ladder.”
This in part explained the record price achieved at the Brocks sale, he said.
New Zealand Deer Farmers Association chairman John Somerville said the syndicate buying tended to be done by those purchasing stags at the top end of the market.
The bulk of the buying is still undertaken by individuals.
One factor that stood out this year among the velvet sales was more people buying on style.
“There was quite a differential. In the velvet, they wanted nice, tidy clean heads and there tended to be lesser interest in rougher heads.”
There was a price difference between non-typical heads and the more sought after heads in that velvet market, he said.
“That’s a reflection of where prices went because there’s quite a price difference that farmers get per kilogram on that.”
Somerville said overall the sales had good crowds and the averages were close to last years.
“I think people should be pretty happy with how they went. There were good clearances, which is important.”
