My passion, hunting, has taken me to many different countries to hunt Red deer. I have hunted Red deer in Hungary, Vojvodine (Serbia), Bulgaria, Rumania, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland and New Zealand. Red deer has always existed in countries along the Danube as well as in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus. Red deer was introduced to both Russia and New Zealand and there it has developed magnificently.
The stock that was introduced to Russia came mostly from the former eastern bloc countries like Poland (Romincka Forest/Masuria), Hungary and Yugoslavia whereas 90% of the New Zealand stock came from British deer parks like Woburn, Warnham, Furzeland and Midmar Castle. Some of the stock also came from German deer farms and parks such as Schulte Wrede, Poing and Grabowski. I myself first got interested in the breeding of Red deer in the mid 90’s. As well as looking for a suitable location, I have visited deer parks in England, Scotland, Belgium, Austria and Germany enabling me to compare many different types of handling facilities and game fences. I was extremely impressed with the deer farms and parks in New Zealand and England where the handling facilities and fencing as well as the management and above all the unique quality of the stock were highly developed. The artificial insemination of selected hinds as well as the transfer of embryos is standard practice. The handling of the livestock and the effective, sturdy fencing systems are remarkable. Only posts and other fencing material are used which are tough and durable, with a service life of more than 30 years. Each deer park used some sort of handling system (whether mechanical or hydraulic) for the livestock and managed without any use of sedation. The effort and risk involved in sedation was too high for the deer farmers. Most of them placed great emphasis on treating the stock, which often consisted of several thousand animals, to protect them against internal and external parasites. This was carried out several times a year. (Dectomax).

One of the most important prerequisites for successful breeding is parasite-free stock!

The Woburn Estate is situated north of London, not far from Luton Airport. The 15th Duke of Bedford is the owner of this beautiful area. Woburn Abbey’s various commercial concerns include a safari park with elephants and tigers, a golf club which also runs international tournaments, the largest antique centre outside London and, above all, a world famous Red deer park. A huge white castle is surrounded by a beautiful park containing ancient woodland. Oaks and beeches which are several huundred years old adorn this park and provide a beautiful setting for the Pere David deer, Red deer, Axis, Rusa, Barasingha, Sika, Fallow deer, Chinese Water deer and Muntjac. The re-introduction of Pere David deer to China was only made possible with breeding stock from Woburn Abbey. The Red deer is reared on a farm of approx. 50 hectares next to the park. The Head Deer Keeper Callum Thomson runs the farm with great success. The aim of the Woburn blood-line farm is stags with thickly branched antlers and up to 50 points. It goes without saying that, as a result, the length of the antlers is somewhat reduced. The antlers of the Woburn stags are on average 90–100cm long, some exceptions are up to 110cm long. In 2005 we bought a sire stag (Drew, 12th head) from Woburn Abbey for breeding purposes. Drew had previously been used as a sire stag by Woburn Abbey for several years and his antlers were 108cm long with 38 points.

Warnham Park in Sussex, approx.  15 minutes drive from Gatwick Airport, was founded in 1851. The Lucas family bought Warnham Park in 1865 and, after about 150 years, the park and farm are still run by Jonathan Lucas. The aim of the Warnham blood-line is long branches – up to 125cm and a spread  of up to 110cm.  As a result the number of points inevitably suffers. Stags with more than 26 points are an exception. Here they also employ the system of keeping Red deer in a park with the breeding of Red deer (with sire and hind identification) taking place on the farm. Numerous paddocks are connected by a raceway along which the animals are herded and, via a handling area, eventually isolated in a deer crush.

It is here that all animal husbandry tasks can be carried out, whether it be TB and brucellosis tests or marking and the removal of antlers. All deer farms and parks in England are forced to saw off the antlers which have already shed their velvet as otherwise there is too great a risk of injury and death amongst the fighting stags. In 2006 we imported 20 hinds and calves from Warnham Park to join our breeding stock.

Sire stags from Bailing Hill Deer Farm can be seen on         www.warnhampark.com

The Warnham blood line is represented in most of the significant deer farms in New Zealand and is without doubt one of the „top ten“ worldwide.

Furzeland Deer Park is situated right in the west of England, on the M5 (Bristol - Exeter) at the Tiverton junction. Michael Gage is the Manager of this farm which was founded in the 1970’s  by Dr John Henshaw. Graham Carr joined the park as a partner in the 1980’s.
It was Furzeland’s aim to combine the main characteristics of Woburn and Warnham.

One of Arthur’s sons was Wellington who in turn was the sire of Jamie. The same blood lines always appear in the pedigrees of many New Zealand farms – Woburn, Warnham and Furzeland as well as Schulte Wrede and Grabowski.

But back to Furzeland in Devon, England. Mike Gage continued breeding with the stock that remained in England after Graham Carr relocated to New Zealand. It was thought that Jamie would play a prominent role as a sire stag but, after his tragic untimely death, Mike could only continue to breed with Jamie’s progeny. In the late 1990’s he had Mickey and Bonar – 2 stags that were able to tie into the era of Jamie, Jamieson and George.

In 2005 we imported  25 hinds, 15 spikers, a stag in his 3rd head (Dakota) and Bracken (who, as a spiker, already had 34 points) from Furzeland.

Midmar Castle is situated right up in the north of Scotland not far from Aberdeen. A beautiful position – hilly with altenating meadowland and woodland. The area was a natural location for a Red Deer farm. Midmar Castle is a wonderful place, full of several hundred years worth of antiques and knights armour. The owners are Jackie and Ric Wharton. Ric had previously came to people’s attention when he recovered 5 tonnes of gold treasure from a ship which the German army had sunk in the Second World War in the Barents Sea. This was gold that Russia wanted to use to pay for arms from the West.

In the 1980’s Ric bought a herd of pure Warnhams and started to breed Red deer. He attached great importance to keeping the Warnham blood line pure and never crossed it with another blood line. I was told about Ric by Ludo Braekman from Belgium who had a joint venture with Midmar Castle. While on a hunting holiday (Roe deer) in Scotland in 2004, I took the opportunity to have a look at this farm. What I saw was extremely impressive and so decided to import approx. 80 animals for our start-up on the Gollin Estate. At the beginning of September 2005 I visited Midmar Castle once again to see how they handled the animals eg sawing off the antlers and vaccinating against parasites. I selected the following stock to start up the Gollin Estate Farm:

This stag was sold to the Emir of Quatar in 2007 and is now a sire stag in the south of France.

We changed all the earmarks when the animals were delivered in 2006, hence the different earmark numbers. The animals that we imported from Midmar Castle have all settled in well on the Gut Gollin Estate. A Belgian company, which specialises in transporting Red deer, transported the animals for us. It took 3 days from Aberdeen to us...

We should also mention the 3 leading Deer Farms in New Zealand:

Deer Genetic
www.deergeneticsnz.co.nz
Stanfield Bushey Park
www.stanfield.co.nz
Peel Forest Estate
www.peelforestdeergenetics.com