Farming Today

Farming Today This Week: Deer

Farming Today

Lucy Taylor heads to Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, to explore the estate's Deer Park and Farm, which is a centre for deer genetics sold across Europe. It's rutting season, and the bellows of stags can be heard across the site: estate deer keepers Martin Harwood and Dan De Baerdemaecker - who's also chairman of the British Deer Farms and Parks Association - discuss the rut, as well as the nine different species of deer that live on-site. The estate deer team also take Lucy the to farm, where prize stags are bred and either sold to start other heards, or kept so their genetics can be sold on. Meanwhile the British Deer Society's Charles Smith-Jones talks to Charlotte Smith about why British deer farmers are feeling positive about venison sales but concerned over disease; Vernon Harwood heads to the Cotswolds to find out why there's a heightened risk of deer collisions on country roads during rutting season; and Moira Hickey visits a Highland estate to find out why managing deer numbers has long been a contentious subject in Scotland.

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📆 2017-10-10 18:32 / 00:24:50