Jul 21, 2023
This year’s hind sales are underway with good prices being achieved for good quality animals.
Hinds have sold well, according to PGG Wrightson deer agent Murray Coutts.
The strong market for high-BV animals indicates people are, “particularly looking for hinds that will provide weaners that will finish early for the venison markets,” he says.
The first in-calf hind auction for South Canterbury took place at Fairlie-based Melior Genetics earlier this month, he noted.
“It was encouraging to see a good number of buyers registered for the sale, both on BIDR online and on-farm, giving confidence that there is still demand for breeding hinds.”
Melior Genetics’ Tom Macfarlane was very happy with the prices they gained at the auction, their seventh annual in-calf hind sale.
Some of Melior’s high growth rate hinds on hill country where they spend 12 months of the year with minimal inputs.
Melior had offered 450 rising two and three-year-old high growth rate (HGR) hinds for sale, all pregnancy tested in calf to HGR sires with breeding values (BV) of 30+.
All of the “ready to go” hinds sold at “very good prices”, with the average of $738 up $90 on last year, he reports. They had “great interest from around the country”, with successful buyers paying between $700 and $770 per head at the sale run by PGG Wrightson and supported by Rural Livestock. Several buyers left empty-handed at the sale close.
“It’s great to see confidence in deer farming increasing again even in the face of other challenges such as high interest rates and input costs and subdued complementary stock class prices,” Macfarlane comments.
The result reflected commercial realities at present, he feels, with “farmers clearly working out what they could afford to pay given current venison returns and sticking to it. The range of prices was quite tight also reflecting the quality and demand.”
The positive sale result reflects the confidence in the deer industry for the future, Coutts believes.
