Velvet Sire Auction
Sunday 10th January 2021 from 12pm. Auction at 1pm
It has certainly been a challenging year for the deer industry. We have seen a decline in both venison and velvet prices through no fault of our own, although the velvet market is still in relatively good position considering we are in the middle of a global pandemic. It is pleasing to see that velvet is now moving through our main markets and this gives me great confidence in the future of the velvet industry. At the time of writing this we have seen a few auction sales go through with positive outcomes which indicates that deer farmers can see beyond this glitch in the system and continue to invest in genetics. Keeping your foot on the throttle will ensure that the genetics you put into your herd today will ensure you remain in good stead for the future when the industry hits its straps once again.
We have seen a huge lift in weights in our Stud Velvet 3yr old’s with an overall average of 7.3kg across 134 stags. This is up from 6.3kg the previous year. While this is very pleasing to see as a breeder that we are heading in the right direction, I was very particular about what went in the sale. When breeding a velvet herd I believe the sire must have clean velvet. Its more important than ever now to produce traditional style velvet versus non-traditional as the price gap seems to be getting bigger every season. Its very difficult to breed messy velvet back out of the herd once its embedded. With this in mind, what is sold this year may not be the heaviest we have produced but it is certainly the correct style that should be used as a sire for you.
Our catalogue is a little smaller than the previous year but feel the quality of what’s on offer is exceptional. The average of the sale line up is 8.04kg which is up from 7.7kg last year. There are 10 x pure English stags in this sale and a couple of new Sires.
Finally, we are running our sale as a Hybrid sale alongside BIDR so if you can’t make it on the day you’ll still be able to bid online, which seems to be working very well.
Look forward to seeing you on the day
Regards, Mark Tapley
