Velvet Season
/Velvet prices may have eased, but it’s certainly been a good season for growing velvet and I’ve seen some beautiful heavy heads cut this season.
Hamish Smith of Ben Dhu Station, Omarama weighs and tags some clean tidy traditional style velvet.
Hamish has been focussing on improving velvet production for the last 5 years and has developed a close association with a trusted Canterbury stud. Dedication and a combination of genetics and feeding has seen a significant improvement in velvet weights. Average velvet weight is now over 5.2kg, including 2 year old stags. The best head was an absolute ripper of over 14kg from a mature 8 year old sire stag and many of this stags progeny are now coming through the system as 3 and 4 year old stags. It’s immensely satisfying to see our clients achieve such positive results.
As an indication of how far the velvet industry has progressed since the 1980’s if a mature velvet stag cut over 2kg he was a keeper and if he cut 3kg he was known as a heavy velveter!
Velvet ID tags
The old plastic ‘cable tie’ tags are obsolete and should not be used.
The new velvet tags Hamish is applying are a wrist-band type self adhesive tag with a barcode and unique number. The tags are wrapped around the velvet in the same way as the old tags and the ends stuck together. Ensure the tag is not too tight as it can constrict and damage the velvet during freezing. Next season’s tags will be different and have a UHF chip in them.
Naturo rings
Animal welfare with respect to velveting techniques is being actively monitored at the Venison plants and any non-compliance is being followed up by MPI.
In particular, there have been some issues reported with spikers velveted with Naturo rings.
It is vitally important that:
Only Naturo rings are used and that they are doubled over and applied correctly.
The velvet is cut above the pedicle/coronet junction.
Rings can be left on only if the stags are going direct to slaughter within 72 hours and have not had any drugs.
