Back in 2012 we purchased the Pure Warnham and Warnham-Woburn breeding herd along with selected sires, semen, embryos and the Windermere name from the award winning Windermere Red Deer Stud near Hamilton.
The Windermere stud has been specialising in breeding for superior velvet genetics for nearly twenty five years providing outstanding sires to the deer industry with a high degree of consistency and reliability.
The primary focus was always to strive for the best velvet antler structure suited to the commercial velvet industry. The Pure Warnham Park bloodlines are undoubtedly the most reliable in achieving this.
In recent years, the Windermere stud has achieved the status of the industry’s leading Warnham Park velvet herd with an extensive list of awards from the National Velvet and North Island Velvet competitions. In 2011 the two heaviest red velvet heads were awarded to Windermere stags.
Windermere have managed to maintain specialist velvet lines without mixing with trophy genetics and the challenge when looking to sell the stud was to ensure it found a safe home where these bloodlines can continue to be advanced and remain available to farmers.
‘We have always resisted the temptation to mix our lines and genetics, and we wanted to ensure that this continued. We are happy that the stud is going to Peel Forest Estate because they are an extremely well managed and professional operation and the Windermere velvet genetics will complement their other strengths,’ Kempthorne says.
This is an important strategic acquisition for Peel Forest Estate. It is also important for the industry that the Warnham Windermere stud has been kept in its entirety which will enable the industry to continue to benefit from John’s passion and hardworking over the years in developing these top class genetics.
It also brings the stud closer to the main body of the industry with 70% of deer now in the South Island. Also on a pure commercial basis for us at Peel Forest Estate where we harvest over 2,000 velvet stags it will give our velveting herd a huge boost.
Peel Forest Estate will be the primary source of these genetics.
“It has been an immense pleasure breeding this herd and watching it become what it is today, and we look forward to following it future developments at Peel Forest Estate with Steve and Graham,”…. John Kempthorne