On Your Farm - 03/10/2010

Imagine a 250 kilo stag charging at you with antlers weighing another 10 kilos. Terry Shaw, Livestock Manager at Round Green Deer Farm has had a few close shaves with the animals he says would never truly be tamed. Caz Graham travels to Barnsley to meet the team there who produce animals for the growing venison market. The meat is now regularly stocked in supermarkets as well as farm shops and much of it comes from farmed animals, stunned and bled in abattoirs, rather than shot wild deer. Farmer Richard Elmhirst introduced a few deer to his family's dairy farm in the 1970s. Now the cattle are gone and hundreds of hinds and stags can be seen grazing the fields instead. A specially designed abattoir has been installed and they now process thousands of animals for other deer farms. Only half the amount of venison eaten in the UK is reared here with much of the rest coming from New Zealand. Richard says the returns on deer are more favourable than sheep or beef and is encouraging more farmers to consider deer farming as an alternative. Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.