From the very start, Pampas Heights Red Deer Stud set out to lead the way in breeding stags of superior quality.

From the outset Pampas Heights strove to be a little bit different.

In 2001 Pampas Ridge (as it was then called) moved its stud farm to a smaller property North of Rotorua and became Pampas Heights. Part of the rationale for the move was to get out of the commercial deer farming operation that had been run alongside the stud on the larger Pampas Ridge property and to focus solely on the stud farm. The move from the cold frosty South to the warmer North presented views over the sunny Bay of Plenty coast. The new property is 1200 feet above sea level, and has spectacular rolling countryside stretching away to the northern sea views.

The smaller property has really focussed management on quality. With a smallish breeding herd of just 125 females, the need is for exacting standards of excellence in every animal, as any hit-and-miss breeding will result in an inability to offer the market a fair and reasonable selection to choose from on sale day.

The discerning buyer will have noticed that Pampas Heights’ offerings today are uncannily good from Lot 1 to Lot 25, with no tail enders in the mix. This only comes with a lengthy term of consistent breeding, and knowing how to get it right most of the time!

Pampas Heights has done the groundwork to be able to deliver excellent genes with locked-in performance pedigrees.

The early purchases of imported English bloodlines were made by Pampas Ridge in the late 1980s. These animals all became a part of a learning process where every mating was carefully documented and results tabulated to ascertain what worked and what didn’t. All animals were (and still are) weighed quarterly to record growth rates and much learning resulted.

While some stags certainly do breed faster growing progeny than others, Pampas Heights has deduced that the female has a greater impact on progeny performance than the sire. Further, that female body weight is a poor indicator of progeny body weight! Confusing eh! Simply put, some smaller females consistently breed large progeny, and vice versa.

It is a lot more difficult to measure antler performance because of the multiplicity of different measures – velvet weights and grades – SCI/IOA measures – length – spread – beam and even water displacement. Pampas Heights has used them all. The results from all of this work is the same as the results from the quarterly weighing trials. Mum’s genes seem to have more impact than Dad’s on progeny performance!

However, for every rule, Pampas Heights found exceptions, so the Golden Rule is that there are no guarantees in the stud breeding game – and that is what makes it so interesting and exciting!