Building the industry’s brain bank had been a part of Deer Industry NZ’s Passion2Profit (P2P) Primary Growth Partnership and the Big Deer Tour initiative was a first this year.
But while the industry was booming it recognised that to realise its greatest potential it needed to inform and motivate the next generation of rural professionals, he said.
“So this year we decided to give a group of university final-year farm management students a top-to-bottom look at the deer industry.
“We called it the The Big Deer Tour 2017 where the students tour the country and spend time with experts in deer farming, research, advisory services and product marketing,” Moffat said.
There was very promising uptake with five applicants accepted for the inaugural tour.
They were Massey University agri-commerce student James Robertson, Massey agri-science students Brianna Lee-Kelleher and Kate Stewart with Lincoln University commerce student Logan Bain and land and property management student Henry Waller.
“There was very good interest and we had to go through a really difficult selection process to decide those who would be taking part this year.”
Silver Fern Farms European key customer manager Glen McLennan joined the students on the tour in the last week of August.
Moffat said the aim was to provide the future rural professionals with a chance to get to know what the deer industry had to offer.
“We recognised that deer was a small part of the NZ agriculture industry and not a lot of deer specific was being taught in the education institutions so we wanted to raise the profile of deer in these areas.
“At the same time we are raising the profile of their potential employers.”
The tour included farm and research centre visits, time with consultancies and sessions on genomics, velvet, animal health and how deer integrated with other species.
“It was a top to bottom, warts and all insight of what the deer industry has to offer.”
Moffatt said it wasn’t necessarily expected the students would have deer industry careers.
“That would be a hope. They may well have been inspired to choose deer as their area of specialisation.
“But if not we will have provided them awareness and points of contacts for the deer industry in their wider career pathways.”
“It most definitely has been a great success and we will be running a Big Deer Tour 2018,” Moffat said.
