Rural Livestock deer genetics agent Adam Whaanga, of Mosgiel, said as venison prices fell in the past 10 years, many farmers had sold their deer to increase their flock as sheep meat prices were on the rise.
Now the venison price had improved and sheep meat prices had fallen and many farmers were asking their banks for a loan to buy deer and were being declined.
"That’s the biggest challenge."
The venison and velvet industry needs farmers to be running more deer.
"If you are promising the market a good supply, you’ve got to have it."
The winter hind and weaner sale season started in the South last week.
All of the sales were through online auction platform Bidr.
Altrive Red Deer offered 50 in-fawn hinds at its sixth annual sale in Riversdale, Northern Southland, on Thursday last week.
All of the hinds sold for an average of $1215 including a top price of $3050 for mixed-age hind 269-19, which was in-fawn to 638-20 Tayles.
Hind 269-19 was out of their embryo programme, by Alt 80-15, "an extremely nice stag with very stylish velvet and good strong beam".
The stag was sold for $75,000 in 2019 and Altrive retained 20 straws of his semen.
His sire, Prophet was the supreme champion in the National Velvet and Hard Antler Competition in 2013.
A reason for selling hind 269-19 was because they had six of her full sisters.
Altrive Red Deer co-owner Samantha Elder said she was "stoked" with the sale result, especially considering the tough economic times facing the farming sector.
Other southern studs to sell hinds were Arawata Red Deer in Pine Bush on Sunday last week, Black Forest Deer on the Taieri tomorrow and Brock Deer in West Otago last night.
Brock Deer co-owner Elliot Brock said some of the hinds on offer were mated to 2-year-old stag Pink 141, which won the Rising Stars velvet competition in Hamilton in March this year.
The catalogue also featured hinds mated to 2-year-old stag Pink 152, which placed third in the competition.
For the first time, his 2-year-old stags produced velvet heads weighing more than 5kg on average this year.
Inquiries leading up to his sale had been steady.
"Everyone seems pretty positive about the deer industry at the moment."
He and his family spent 16 days in China in May this year.
The family were invited to China by their velvet buyer, who showed them around for nine days including the factory where their velvet gets processed in the Xifeng District.
"The Chinese are adamant the velvet needs to be nice and round and short cut because that has the best tips for their slicing."
A highlight of the tour was seeing the traditional method for drying the velvet. His family also visited the market where their velvet was sold.
"It was an incredible trip."
The visit showed the future was bright for growing velvet in New Zealand, he said.
"If you can grow them what they want then there’s a very good market. The Chinese traditional medicine industry is massive and velvet is part of it because it has been in their culture for thousands of years."
