Push-me-pull-you

I went in to work this morning, moved some bits of paper around on my desk, then headed out to the Red Barn again for lunch - making the most of the last week day of the holidays before the kids are back in school and I can't disappear over the lunch break.

On the way back I stopped off at the deer farm paddocks to take some photos of the red deer. Being lazy (and in my defence it was starting to rain yet again) I sat in the drivers seat and took photos through the open passenger window. The stags are just finishing shedding their winter coats and their antlers are starting to grow. I took some photos of the bigger stags, but these young lads get to feature on blip because they reminded me so much of the Dr Doolittle stories from my childhood.

I will no doubt stop there many times in the future and at some point the big boys can have their chance to feature here too - perhaps when their antlers are more fully grown.

For those who don't know; deer were introuduced to New Zealand in the mid 1800's. Because we have no large predators their population quickly grew out of control and they are considered a pest as they badly damage a number of our native plants. It wsn't until the mid-1970's (ish - my memory is a little hazy on that) that farmers began catching live deer and breeding them for meat. Since then the venison and velvet market has become a major export for New Zealand, and we produce more than half of the worlds farmed deer.

Deer in the wild are still considered a pest.