LIC sells off its deer breeding business

Livestock genetics company LIC is selling its deer improvement business to South Canterbury sheep, beef and deer farmers Tom and Samantha Macfarlane and a business partner.

LIC geneticist Dr Richard Spelman said the sale was being made because the co-operative’s chief focus was the dairy industry.

It had established the subsidiary in 2003, and it now comprised includes a 390-hectare farm at Balfour, Southland, an artificial breeding collection and laboratory facilities, and a herd of more than 2000 high genetic merit animals.

Spelman said LIC had a ‘‘multispecies’’ strategy when it set the business up, but the decision to sell reflected where its focus lay now. Besides deer, it had also worked with dairy goats.

As the leading supplier of arti- ficial breeding and herd improvement services for the dairy industry, LIC’s bulls sire about threequarters of the country’s dairy cows.

The deer improvement subsidiary had contributed an average 15 kilograms liveweight gain per ani- mal over the 10 years to 2014, based on yearling weight.

The business employs six staff in Balfour and Queenstown.

Tom Macfarlane said he and Samantha would own 50 per cent of the shares in the business, with another investor holding the remainder. The Macfarlanes will manage daily operations.

‘‘We are excited to carry on the good work of LIC. If we weren’t positive about the future of the deer industry we wouldn’t have bought this business,’’ he said.

The sale is expected to be completed on October 5. Neither seller nor buyer would reveal the value of the transaction.