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Deer
Continued from page 11
By comparison, once the fencing : and chutes for a funnel-system approach to stock handling are completed at Piedmont Farms, Mr. Graage estimated that five hours are all that will be required per doe in a year’s time.
Extra help may be needed for the annual roundup, when the deer are i given inoculations and medications ! to protect them from diseases and | parasites, but under normal condiJ tions, Mr. Graage’s farm manager | said he can do the work involved in ' the 100-acre, 350-head deer farm with just occasional assistance from ‘his wife and their 12-year-old son.
At present, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has no regulations on venison, and this presents an obstacle to exporting deer meat since Europe’s Common Market countries require USDA certification for imports. “But we’re working on that,” Mr. Graage said. And he noted that at current production levels, American deer farmers are 1 years away from needing overseas outlets.
For the time being, most of his fallow deer are destined for sale as breeding stock, another high demand sideline of the deer farming business. “Two years ago, I paid $300 per doe. A year ago, the price was $500. Today, it’s $750 to $900, if jmu can find any.”
He predicted the price and the demand for does will hold steady in that range for the foreseeable future as the ranks of deer farmers grow and those presently engaged in deer farming look to inject new blood into their herds.
The European fallow deer and its ' nearly extinct cousin the Persian, or Mesopotamian, fallow deer, have
87.5%