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A survey of deer farmers has revealed overwhelming agreement that Breeding Values are vital to genetic progress.

The survey was conducted by genetics company Deer Improvement. Nearly 500 farmers responded and only 2% disagreed with the statement that “Breeding Values are the best measure of genetic merit”.

Company spokesman Peter Gatley says the Deer Improvement team is surprised and delighted with the result. “It seems the success of breeding programmes in dairy and lamb have not gone unnoticed among deer farmers who want to see the same sort of efficiency gains in deer”.

Deer Improvement has established a genetic improvement programme for venison production and has a team of high Breeding Value stags providing semen for its Artificial Insemination service, so the company was particularly interested to find out whether farmers agreed with the statement that “AI is the way of the future for the deer industry”. Gatley says that 37% agreed, only 14% disagreed, and that “half the market has an open mind on the matter. That’s great news because most farmers are pleasantly surprised to learn that they only need to AI a small proportion of their herd to achieve the same rate of gain as our nucleus which will benefit from intensive application of the full range of technologies such as embryo transfer and DNA testing”.

The survey also revealed a big skew in the range of herd sizes. Although the average number of hinds mated was 386, half of the respondents mate 220 or fewer. Deer Improvement sees this a big opportunity because AI enables small herds to access genes from stags they could never afford to buy. “For example, the team of six stags that will be used in 2006 is the best of a group of twenty that cost us around $200,000 and another $100,000 to progeny test. This means each stag in the team has cost $50,000 but their actual value is even higher”.

Farmer responses to the survey also made clear they want to see heavy selection pressure on temperament. Gatley points out that the company has already begun a project with AgResearch Invermay for the purpose of deriving a Temperament BV. “The scientists have collected the first temperament data from our progeny test herds but we need much more to be able to derive the level of heritability. Farmers can be sure we’ll move as fast as possible on this one”.