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Today, West Germany has more than 30,000 fallow deer in the wild in addition to those raised in herds of five to 500 on deer farms. The wild deer are descendants of’ semi-domesticated deer that were released from parks and became federal.
Fallow deer were first imported into the United States 75 years ago, “and they’ve been inbreeding ever since,” says Mr. Graage. To broaden the gene pool, members of the North American Deer Farmers have recently brought in bucks from England and Germany, and the farmers plan to sell back and forth to each other to introduce new bloodlines intheir stock, Mr. Graage explained.
His immediate goal is to develop “an elite herd of the best does” and to breed bigger fallow deer. Red deer, the species commonly raised on New Zealand’s farms, are larger, but they are also selective feeders and therefore require more pasture, needing the same one-acre per animal as beef cattle, Mr. Graage said.
So rather than switch to red deer, he’s attempting through his computer-assisted breeding program to get a higher carcass weight — at least 75 to 80 pounds — on his market-bound yearling males. “The biggest variable in profitability is weight,” he noted.
Mr. Graage drives the 60 miles from Washington, D.C. to the F.T. Valley several times a week to walk the fences, inspect the deer, and oversee the restoration of Piedmont Farms’ two log cabins and the stone and frame house built in the late 1700s by a relative of the Francis Thornton for whom the valley is named.
Eventually, he plans to make the farm house his primary residence. In addition to the deer herd, Mr. Graage’s agricultural venture includes an apple orchard — at gourmet shops, he’s noticed apple syrup imported from Belgium and sees possibilities there — and 120 head of beef cattle.
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