The Beginning
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Walter Somerville started farming deer in 1979. Hinds were recorded right from the early days of the stud and stags were sold for the first time in the late eighties with the first on-farm sale in 1991. Walter's son John started working on the farm out of school and now owns the farm with wife Mel.
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Location
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Located on the south coast of Southland quarter of an hour from Edendale, the 170ha farm runs recorded english cross red deer hinds and stags. Arawata Deer Farm has a small venison operation and grows trophy stags out to around eight years of age.
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Genetics
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The original genetic base for the herd was imported from the United Kingdom and Germany. Semen was obtained from a wide range of top red stags allowing John and Mel to evaluate their performance within the herd. John and Mel are big believers in using outside bloodlines to give outside vigour to the herd. They have used english park, furzeland, german and eastern. They have also purchased stags that stand out in the New Zealand sales.
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Future
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John and Mel are always striving to increase weight and quality each year. At present the farm’s four year and above velvet stags are averaging 6.7 kilograms first cut velvet. Twenty five years ago the same age animals were achieving just three kilograms showing the genetic gains that the farm has made. In 2001 the stud was also the first in New Zealand to produce a two year old that cut over five kilograms of velvet. Arawata is a big supporter of estimated breeding values ( EBVs) and has been on Deerselect for a large number of years. We place a large emphasis on growth rates in our English cross herd, as we believe that you can have big English deer with good velvet. We also sell some sires as maternal sires with good 12 month EBVs backed by good 12 month and 2 year live weights.
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