Ex-Miss NZ’s deer herd has the white stuff
Arare herd of white deer is up for sale and unless aNewZealand buyer comes forward soon, it could be sold overseas. Breeder Janey Hayes, a former MissNew Zealand, talks to TONYBENNY.
Janey Hayes has spent 15 years trying to produce white deer that perform as well as their more common red cousins and reckons she’s now achieved that.
‘‘I wanted to create a top white animal that would produce very good antlers with a good constitution, that people can farm like a red with the velvet as well,’’ she says.
‘‘So what I’ve created is something really special that I’m incredibly passionate about – I’ve put my whole life and money into it.’’
While deer farming has been her passion for more than 20 years, it seemed an unlikely career option when she was named Miss New Zealand (as Janey Kingscote) in 1976. Hayes says she’s writing a book about her life and will call it From Stilettos to Gumboots.
‘‘I’m very proud of it because I just like to see that the good Kiwi woman get out there and do something; we’re actually very humble and normal,’’ she says."To have the opportunity to be an ambassador of your country was great. It wasn’t about the beauty contest, it was about the representation of, ‘Wow, look at the country we live in and how lucky we are; look at what goes on; look at what we’ve got’. We’re so fortunate.’’
After winning the title, Hayes worked as a model in Switzerland for four years, making ‘‘very good money’’, but when she returned home her life went in a very different direction when she married Fiordland helicopter pilot Richard Hayes (now Sir Richard).
She thrived in the new environment, enjoying helicopters and hunting as well has having two children but the marriage didn’t last. Janey stayed on in Te Anau for another six years, taking control of a 160ha deer farm.
‘‘I commercially farmed elk, mainly for meat and velvet and then ended up with big trophy elk and did really well.’’
Then she moved back to Canterbury, where she came from, bringing the best of her big elks with Janey Hayes is writing a book about her life. her. There wasn’t enough room for them all on her new 11ha lifestyle block so some of them ended up grazing all round Canterbury
‘‘It didn’t take me long to know I’m gonna go spare here because I’m running around and I’ve got two children. I was paying grazing and, I’m sorry, no one does them as well as you do.’’
Over four years she cut the numbers back but she was also finding the big animals a handful so began to consider changing over to smaller red deer. By chance she spotted a white stag and changed direction again.
‘‘I went over to the West Coast 15 years ago and I was at a red deer farm. He had all these reds in there in the pouring rain and in the middle of them was this little white deer. I said to the guy, ‘I like him, he’s kind of cute’, and I said I’ll give you $1000 for him.’’
Originally, the idea was that the white deer would be an extra attraction for the visitors who came on garden tours but soon Hayes came up with a new plan.
Her first stag was descended from some white red deer that had been imported from Denmark but which hadn’t really thrived here.
‘‘They were just very average; their constitution was really shocking – tiny little skinny animals, they had gut problems, black stain down their back legs, always scouring, cancer round their eyes, the last thing I wanted.’’
But when she put her white stag over some of her first calving elks, 60 per cent of the offspring were white, albeit not fine specimens. ‘‘They were horrible animals, I’ll be honest, and they were crazy; not nasty natures, they were just skittery, like fallow, just fizzy. It’s just, I thought this is a challenge that will either make me or break me.’’
To improve those animals, Hayes brought in top red deer genetics and with more than half of the progeny being white she started to build her new herd.
‘‘I go round all the sales in New Zealand and over the last 12 years I’ve spent so much buying the best hinds that there are. I pay higher prices and beat the red stud guys to get that hind,’’ says Hayes.
Sometimes she’ll use red stags over white hinds, other times she’ll use white stags, but all the while the genetic worth of the white herd has improved.
‘‘I’ve done a hell of a lot of brown on white so it’s very confusing. It’s a lot of paper work and a lot of serious study.
‘‘I’ve culled extremely hard. All brown stags, even though they carry the white marker, go to the works, I don’t need them. But I will keep little brown hinds, as first calvers only, and I’ll whack a white stag back over.’’
Hayes believes her Royal Lochinvine whites now rank with the top red deer in New Zealand, producing good meat yields and velvet as well as unique trophy animals
‘‘You’ve got a point of difference for the trophy and that’s the big thing – people love them. If you’re a tourist outfitter (hunting guide operator) you should have them for your clients. They go, ‘What’s that? I want to shoot one’.’’
Hayes has decided the time is right to sell the herd. The yearround routine of feeding deer is losing its lustre and she wants time to tackle other challenges like a mountain bike tour through Burma.
She wants to sell the herd in two stages, with ‘‘starter packs’’ comprising two pregnant white hinds (to her champion red stag) and a white stag going first.
‘‘Breeders are coming back and saying they’re quite interested in the bloodline but as soon as I said how much it is, they’ve just gone silent. I’ve got $20,000 on each group and that’s nothing when you think of the stud breeders.’’
Then the rest of the herd will go on the market. ‘‘I’m putting the white herd up, which are all the young genetics, probably comprising 14 or 15 hinds and depending on what I sell beforehand, and about 14 stags.’’
But so far there’s been limited interest in New Zealand and it’s likely one of the wealthy overseas parties who’ve shown interest will be the new owner, a pity says Hayes who believes the few other white deer in New Zealand are inferior animals.
‘‘If the starter packs don’t sell, they’ll go in with the herd – the price will go up and we’ll lose the herd and we’ll be back to crappy white deer. I would love to see them stay here, I’m a passionate Kiwi.’’
Wherever her unique herd of white deer end up, Hayes doesn’t intend to hang up her hat completely. She may subdivide her block and will reduce the number of deer she runs though.