Advance Parties: The deer industry trial of farmer groups to lead practice change for improved profit

Abstract

Deer Industry New Zealand established Advance Parties to improve profitability among New Zealand deer farmers. The number of deer farmed in New Zealand has fallen in the past decade and new ways of doing things are needed to ensure farmers are confident in the animal as a profitable part of the pastoral agricultural mix. Advance Parties are a farmer-centric means of encouraging adoption of new practices to improve the profitability of farming deer. Advance Parties are small groups of like-minded farmers focussed on helping each other implement, record and observe changes on their properties, with external assistance when needed. The results of these changes will be disseminated to the wider deer farming community. Deer Industry New Zealand is running 15 Advance Parties as at November 2015, with the aim of running 30 on an ongoing basis. This would involve approximately 300 deer farms. Keywords: Deer Industry New Zealand, Passion2Profit, deer farming practice change