Fairlight Station hosts 2025 deer industry conference field day

Simon Wright leading discussion from the airstrip

The day after the annual deer industry conference, attendees traveled from Queenstown to just over the Otago/Southland border to Fairlight Station for the post-conference farm field day. In addition to the spectacular scenery, attendees were treated to a farm tour by farm manager (and equity partner since 2016) Simon Wright, as well as some typical southern hospitality.

Fairlight Station is located in northern Southland, with 2,650ha (2,500 effective), 1,290ha of the farm deer fenced. The focus of the farm is to “manage a profitable, sustainable, diversified farming system,” according to Wright, with a significant focus on environmental sustainability.

The station was purchased by Canadian owners Doug and Mari Harpur in 2002, with Simon and Louise Wright employed as managers in 2003, which was also the year that deer fencing was started. The farm targets early fawning and fast-growing fawns.

After a welcome coffee and introductory remarks by Simon, attendees divvied up into utes and snaked up to the station’s airstrip, where attendees looked across the Mataura River at the available flats and a large forestry block of Douglas fir. This was where the first Q&A session happened, with discussions around pasture, soil, seasonal challenges, the forestry block, and more.

Some of the challenges outlined by Wright include only 20 percent of the farm available for arable and the subsequent juggling of feeding priorities among the different stock classes. The climate was also mentioned as sometimes challenging, with the cold winters/springs and dry summers/autumns something to manage.

Lifting soil fertility was highlighted as a priority, with lime going on the hill country recently. Soils are tested every four years, with application adjusted to bring soil fertility up to optimum levels.

From the airstrip, it was down to the deer shed for a tour and a second Q&A session, covering everything from the use of deer genetics to deer shed design.

The Fairlight team has used an extensive genetics programme over the last 12 years, targeting BVs for 12-month growth, emphasising temperament and structure. Over the past 16 years, there has been a 7.3kg gain per animal, or around 456g per year. In 2008, the average carcass weight of R1 stags was 56.5kg, which had risen to 63.8kg carcass weight by 2024.

The last five years has seen Fairlight deer return a carcass weight 6.3kg heavier than the industry average, with a kill date 36 days earlier than the industry average.

As we drove back from the deer shed to where the tour started, Simon discussed the crops on either side of the road and some of the yields.

The Fairlight Foundation intern class of 2025 (Photo: Lynda Gray)

Attendees also heard from Laura Koot, Executive Director of the Fairlight Foundation – set up by the Harpurs and Wrights in 2020 with the aim of advancing young women in the New Zealand agriculture industry.

The foundation offers three internships a year, immersing interns in all aspects of working station life for twelve months so that they may learn a broad range of practical farming skills – including working with deer, sheep, beef and forestry.

A more extensive write-up on the field day will feature in the June edition of Deer Industry News, so make sure you keep an eye out for that.