Deer farming techniques and diseases of deer in Queensland

Abstract

The genesis of the Australian deer industry in the late 1970s was due to a combination of three factors. The high prices paid for velvet antler, particularly by South Korea, automatically set a high price for deer, notwithstanding that we neither had an industry nor market outlets at the time. Australia had a small feral population of deer to breed from and the techniques for feral deer capture and farming had been established by New Zealand farmers.
The major concentration of feral Red deer in Australia is in south-east Queensland, Thus farmers in this area with sufficient capital to meet the high costs of establishment diversified by adding deer to their existing cattle enterprises, Business interests wishing to diversify were also attracted to farming deer.
As this fledgeling industry got under way, two State Government Departments became involved. Feral deer in Queensland are protected under the Fauna Conservation Act which is administered by National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Farmed deer are the responsibility of the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) under the Deer Farming Act and the Stock Act. NPWS saw its role as a source of information and a custodian of
the feral population, DPI saw its role predominantly to monitor disease status and to advise on legislation particularly on standards of confinement outside the feral area.
Much has been published on technical, historical and social aspects of deer and deer farming from countries where these animals have been utilised by man to a much greater extent than in Australia. This publication should be a useful document for all involved or interested in this new industry in Queensland.