Our Story
Peel Forest Estate Stud was purchased by the Group in 1992. Originally the stud herd was established with captured deer from Marshall Tito’s famous hunting reserve in Croatia and the Schulte-Wrede herd in Germany – which includes Romanian, Hungarian and Czech bloodlines. Each of these bloodlines have an important role in the stud.
For 25 years we have been providing world class genetics and sires for the industry. Using state-of-the-art breeding technology and cross herd genetic analysis, Peel Forest Estate develops superior bloodlines with proven performance and heritability, establishing itself as an important source of world-class red deer genetics. Through a heavy investment in research, Peel Forest Estate is now also able to provide a huge competitive advantage with Johnes resilient deer.
Today the herd comprises of over 8000 fully recorded, electronically ear tagged deer with a huge depth of genetics from which we are selecting high performance deer for the venison, velvet and trophy market.
The property itself in total is just over 7000 acres with having recently purchased a 3000 acre extensive hill block . This hill block allows us to breed and test our venison genetics in the same, if not worse country that deer farming is moving into.
The Peel Forest Estate breeding programme focuses on four distinct lines being the Terminal B11, Forrester Maternal Sires and Trophy stags and powewrful velvet genetics with the purchase of the Windermere Stud back in 2012.
- Terminal B11 – are Peel Forest Estate’s own genetics and benefits include: they mate more hinds, mate for the whole mating season, mate more, earlier and longer, have a nice shape and size
- Forrester Maternal Sires – benefits include: early conception, calving ease, mothering and milking ability, temperament and high degree of Johnes resilience and powerful EBV’s for growth rates for English deer.
- Trophy Stags – Peel Forest Estate has an established reputation for providing quality antler genetics focusing more on style than scores.
- Velvet Stags – 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.
Peel Forest Estate focus on the environment and animal welfare having won two environmental awards in 2010 and an on-going commitment to best farming practice.
