Silage and hay intakes of housed red deer calves

There is an increasing interest in deer farming as an alternative livestock enterprise. One of the main reasons for this is that, currently, demand for venison (a low fat, red meat) is much greater than supply. However a major limiting factor to venison production is the slow growth rate of deer during the winter months. This is a consequence of their low feed intakes over this period. The aim of this study was to monitor feed intakes of housed, commercially-farmed red deer calves on a ‘good quality’ diet over the winter months to observe seasonal variations in appetite. One hundred and fifty four red deer calves (mainly June born) were observed in this study. There were four pens of stags containing 25, 23, 22 and 13 animals per pen, and three pens of hinds with 25, 25 and 21 animals per pen. All animals were offered forage ad-libitum plus 1.36 kg/d of a home-mix ration (12.9 MJ ME/kg DM, I62g CP/kg DM). One group of hinds was offered hay as the forage whilst the others all received silage.