Friday, March 29, 2024

Stag line makes big bucks

Neal Wallace
Nixon has certainly paid his way. The exceptional velvet and trophy stag owned by Crowley Deer from Waikato sold for $300,000 three years ago but his influence is still felt today with a son fetching a season-high of $155,000 this year and another son making $128,000 two years ago.
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All have been bought for breeding, with the $155,000 five-year-old stag and its set of antlers estimated at 25kg going to Mt Cecil Trophy Deer Stud in South Canterbury.

Vendor Todd Crowley said the family’s breeding motto, designing antlers, underpins the breeding philosophy.

“In my mind I have an idea of what I want to breed.”

When Nixon was sold he had the world’s largest orthodox Red stag head with a reading of 810 inches of antler.

Crowley’s father Joe was an early participant in deer farming who learnt his skills from helping his father as a boy then working alongside him and eventually managing his family’s Tower Farms property.

“I learnt to read by reading catalogues,” he said.

He has been farming on his own account near Hamilton for the last eight years.

Crowley has kept two impressive three-old breeding sires from new bloodlines.

The deer industry’s genetic pool is limited so it is important to have new bloodlines available.

It is enjoying a golden patch with stable, high venison and velvet prices but that is also being reflected in the prices for trophy stags, Crowley said.

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