Apr 4, 2024
The months of March and April on the farm are always a busy time for us, with tagging and weaning of fawns, covering of grapes with nets to keep the birds at bay and then putting the stag out and then finally the harvest of the grape crop. All very important jobs that must be done and all are a culmination of a year of decisions and actions that result in hopefully favourable outcomes.
Plenty of things have been happening on the NZDFA front and we are making headway with NAIT compliance issues that deer farmers have been facing over the past few years. As a more coordinated approach it would be helpful for farmers to contact Craig North (contact details in this DFA Stagline issue) who is the current NZDFA OSPRI rep. We are looking for problems that have occurred in recent times, so that the problems can be resolved and the continuation of blanket fines to deer farmers will stop would be the best outcome for all.
This will be my last Stagline as the current NZDFA Chair and I would like to wish the next Chair all the best and will still be on the NZDFA Executive for the next year when my current term will end in May of 2025. It has been a quick 2 years that have really flown by and a pleasure to meet a lot of deer farmers and a lot that are making the move into deer farming, unfortunately there have also been farmers retiring from farming at the same time.
As well as being the NZDFA Chair, I am also the current Chief Fire Officer of the Seddon Fire Brigade. Yesterday we had a fire call and we must drop everything that we are doing and attend ASAP. Well yesterday I did my best impersonation of Barry Crump and flew up the hill with 500 kgs of feed nuts and made the fire call on time, only to return and be confronted by a slightly grumpy stag that then proceeded to give my front fender a full workout and also tickle up my rear taillight. So today I am off to see the panel shop and see what magic can be done and I have learnt my lesson that deer farming is far more exciting than any other type of farming.
- Justin Stevens, NZDFA Executive Committee Chair
