Highbourne Farm
(Continued from Pago B 2)
water supply’s Lake Redman.
“A friend who was a curator at
the Bronx Zoo suggested red deer,
rather than fallow deer which we
also considered,” says John Behr
mann. “They’re more disease
resistant, carry more body weight
and have a better feed conversion
rate.”
Behrmann imported his initial
SO head of breeding stock from
New Zealand in 1990. Due to
quarantine laws, the deer could
not directly enter the U.S. from
New Zealand, but first had to go
through Canada, a process that in
total took 210 days. A second herd
was imported from Canada two
years later, with bloodlines from
Scottish red deer.
"That was to get another gene
pool and add hybrid vigor to our
herd,” Behrmann explains. “The
stags from that bloodline are lar
ger but have a quieter
temperament
Since red deer, especially the
stags or males, become more con
fident with size and maturity,
temperament is Behrmann’s first
criteria for breeding selection.
Size and conformation follow
close behind as desirable selective
traits.
“You never turn your back on
them,” says Behrmann, of the
gentle-eyed, docile-looking deer.
And, since many buyers of red
deer are first-time livestock raisers
or former producers of domestic
cattle, a calmer temperament
enhances ease of handling of this
traditionally wild species.
A mature red deer stag may
weigh as much'as 600 pounds,
while females, or hinds, average
about 280 pounds when full
grown. Stags reach breeding
maturity from 24 to 30 months of
age and should remain viable herd
sires through at least eight years
old. Females can be productive
breeders for about 15 years, Behr
mann estimates.
Red deer are related to the
North American elk, which they
resemble in conformation and
impressive stag antler growth.
. early spring, will be
removed v jm the stags to prevent them from causing Inju
ries to other herd members.
Their offspring are called calves,
and are born alter a gestation per
iod of 233 days. Mating season at
Highbourne Farms runs from ear
ly September through mid-
December. On average, one stag is
run with a herd of 40 hinds, with a
second stag rotated in about half
way through the breeding season
to catch any remaining open
females.
Early-fall bred calves, for May
or June calving, are most desir
able, since they will grow to about
120 pounds by September wean
ing and can better withstand harsh
winter weather and competition at
the feed troughs.
“We follow a lot of the same
management practices as those for
cattle,” Behrmann says. “We test
for brucellosis and tuberculosis
vaccinate for 13 different potential
health problems and worm four
times a year.”
Hardy animals, the deer rarely
use the shelters located in the pas
tures, even through the coldest
weather, such as that of this past
winter. They will seek out shade
during summer heat, preferring
the tree-lined pasture edges or
wooded pasture areas.
“They are a lot of fun to raise
and to watch grow,” grins John
Behrmann, who obviously enjoys
this unusual livestock enterprise.
“Successful deer farmers general
ly to something else as well. Deer
don’t take all that much time,
maybe two hours a day, except at
times when we tag, test or
vaccinate.”
Though semi-domesticated, the
deer are still skittish and do not
herd well for handling, so special
procedures are followed for health
work. High gates are set up from
pasture exit to the bam and cov
ered with shade cloth for a wall
effect. Then the deer are slowly
moved to a work area in the bam,
where they are run through a
hydraulically-operated squeeze
and weigh chute. The high,
enclosed, thickly-cushioned sides
keep the deer calm and protected
during weighing, testing and
vaccinations.
At weaning, calves are
Though quick to scatter If frightened, the red deer are normally docile, even
tempered and curious.
weighed, tagged and penned, then
calmed with round-the-clock mus
ic to distract them from a constant
calling between mothers and
babies. With hand-feeding and
extra attention, they quickly tame,
and are then grouped by weight
and size.
“Dogs are their worst enemies;
the deer could clear our seven-foot
fences if they were pressed,” says
Behrmann. More of a problem is
that some of the deer become very
friendly and will quickly slip
through a gate in search of feed
handouts, given the opportunity..”
Double gates at the pasture com
pound entrance are added
“escape” insurance.
“You can’t chase them, but they
will come right back if they do get
out,” says this red deer specialist,
relating the tale of a North Dakota
deer-raising friend'whose herd of
hinds escaped when a gate was left
open. “They all came back in the
Call, bringing their calves with
them.”
White-tailed deer are abundant
in this part of southern York
County and have an occasion
come bounding in through the 35
acres of fenced deer pasture. Usu
ally, notes Behrmann, that hap
pens when farm equipment work
ing nearby stirs them from the
fields. Visits from their wild deer
neighbors are more likely to occur
during intensely-bitter winter
weather, when natural feed for the
whitetails becomes scarce or
inaccessible.
Deer hunting season was a real
concern for at least the first few
years. The herd is kept relatively
confined during that period and
shade cloth draped over the enclo
sure fences. Neighbors of High
boume Farms have also become
extra watchful during deer season
for unfamiliar vehicles and
hunters.
Com silage is fed through the
winter, November through April,
along with an average of four
pounds of orchardgrass hay and
two pounds of grain. Pasture is the
prime warm weather feed, a blend
of bluegrass and common white
clover which withstands close
cropping and constant trodding by
the herds’ sharp, pointed hooves.
Browse from trees and shrubs is
a natural favorite of the deer. In
the several areas of wooded pas
ture, Behrman has encircled in
wire the trunks of trees he wants
standing for shade. The deer eat
the bark from the unprotected
trees, which are cut for firewood
after they die. In the openings
cleared in this way during the past
four years, grass patches will be
seeded to enhance eating and
feeding areas in the wooded
paddocks.
Stags are dehorned each year
when their antlers have reached
about half-growth, to help control
fighting and injury to other herd cattle producers. Elk and whitetail
members. Behrmann relates that raisers are subject to oversight by
the first year they had the deer, the Pennsylvania Game Commis
they wanted to see how large the sion, since those species are indi
antlers would get, and lost a genous to the state, while produc
female that was fatally injured crs of non-native deer come under
from an antler goring. Department of Agriculture regu-
Behrmann is a director of the latory rules.
North American Deer Farmers “We’ve tested for tuberculosis
Association, an industry group of
about 400 members raising vari
' ous types of elk and deer. Fallow
deer are the most numerous, with
members growing about a half
milion head. Red deer rank second
in popularity, numbering about
25,000 head. In western states
such as Texas, deer farmers oper
ate primarily as ranchers with
fenced, open-grazing areas, while
producers in other parts of the
country have facilities more tradi
tional to cattle raising. New York
has numerous deer farmers, many
of them dairymen who sold their
herds in the whole-herd buyout
program.
Wees for a “covered” or bred
female are in the $2,500 range,
while breeding-size stags may sell
for more or less, dependent on
theirbloodlines and conformation.
A male weaned calf is worth about
$5OO.
“We are fighting as an industry
to be treated just like livestock,”
Behrmann says of regulatory con
cerns of the organization. “We
want some regulations, we want to
be classified as livestock, we want
brucellosis testing when animals
are moved from state to state."
Concerns over deer spreading
diseases like brucellosis and
tuberculosis to cattle has haunted
the industry and caused some fric
tion at time between deer and
Jfome steed
Jfotes
for a long time. Everything that
goes out of here is tested in accor
dance with either the rules of the
receiving state or within the state
for our Pennsylvania buyers.
Some states require two sets of
tests, given 90 days apart. The
producers with the most financial
stakes are going to follow the rules
because they have the most to lose
if they don’t.”
Because of his deer raising
experience, Behrmann finds him
self in a consulting position to
others interested in the business.
He has helped start up operations
in Tennessee and Maine and has
inquiries from New Yorki, New
Jersey and Delaware.
Due to the excess of stage
resulting from the breeding stock
business, Behrmann has also
become a marketer of another
commodity venison. The initial
aim was to retail quarters, halves
and whole carcasses, but venison
sales have instead gone in the
direction of the restaurant trade,
while retaining a small retail
clientele. Cutting and packaging is
done by the J.L. Miller Sons meat
retail market in York. Meat is sold
either fresh, or freshly frozen, sea
led in cryovac packaging, and
demand is now outpacing High
boume Farm’s ability to supply.
Two primary wholesale mark
(Turn to Page B 4)