News

The rut has started at Sky Park Farm!  We have introduced the red, white and sika stags to their rutting groups. The rut will last until November. 

This is an impressive time on a deer farm with a full orchestra of sounds emanating from our sika, red and white deer. 

Sika are renowned for their repertoire of calls. From groaning stags to clacking noises, whistles and screams, they have a huge variety of vocalisations used in many different situations. Both sexes bark when alarmed. The red stags will roar and display to impress the hinds and ward off other stags – in the wild you would see them fighting to show off to the hinds.  

At the farm we single sire rut to control the exact genetic cross between sire and dam. Maintaining the quality of the progeny born on the farm is critical for both maintaining breeding lines and excellent venison. 

With our eyes on the future, we have identified which of our yearlings will be staying for breeding, as well as eight magnificent young stags that we will be keeping for future breeding. 

Prior to the rut, when in hard antler, all the stags’ antlers are removed for safety. This process is equivalent to trimming your toenails – removing the tissue that is no longer growing. The antlers are removed above the coronet leaving a small stump of dead antler. In wild deer, the antlers would fall off naturally, with the new antlers growing back in the Spring. 

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