Deer Farming And Layout Problems
A very crucial part of arranging your deer farming venture is keeping in mind, the types of deer and amount of land accessible. The way the land is planned will have an impact on the requirements of the deer. For the safety of the deer and the ease of handling, all natural areas need to be evaluated and determined if they will be suitable for the type of deer you are planning to breed. Also there really should be a constant water source available for any farm, but especially for animals such as deer and alpaca.
The optimal plan for a deer farm is one that includes a centrally located catchment funnel and passage that are easily accessed from all of the deer camps and the road. The dimensions of the camps are not a health factor for the deer but there are many other factors to consider:
- Lengthy and narrow camps make the shifting of the deer from on e camp to another easier.
- If you only have a small camp you can only have one herd and one breeding male. More than one male in a small camp will lead to fighting amongst them as they try to become the dominant stag.
- If you have your herd in a paddock less than 1.5 ha, this will be another reason for fighting as the dominant stag will not be able to mate with the entire herd, but neither will he allow any other males to mate with them.
- If your deer farm has a paddock larger than 10 ha then it is far better to divide it into smaller fields and fence each area off. This gives you the opportunity to rotate the feeding and allows the re-growth of vegetation.
- An essential part of any deer farm is the handling yard no matter how small your herd is. You should allow for at least 6 square metres per deer. This applies even if they are only going to be in the handling yard for an hour or two.
- There should be a raceway connected to the paddocks preferably built on a down slope as it is not in the deer’s nature to break away at a run going downhill.
- Gates should be constructed to swing both ways to prevent breakaways.
If you take the advice given here, there should be no reason for your deer farming project to fail.
