Deer Industry Advance Parties: farmer groups lead practice change for improved profit

The NZ deer industry’s ‘Passion2Profit’ productivity improvement programme, launched in 2013, established ‘Advance Parties’ (APs) to improve profitability among New Zealand deer farmers. Animal performance on farms was highly variable, and sometimes well below potential productivity, despite a large body of knowledge from prior research investments aimed at optimising animal performance. APs are small groups of like-minded farmers focussed on helping each other implement changes in their businesses. The benefits of these changes are disseminated to the wider deer farming community through various industry communications and regional workshops. As of December 2018, there are 27 APs, with the aim for 30 on an ongoing basis, which would involve approximately 350 deer farms. This paper describes the history, functioning and measured outcomes of APs within the New Zealand deer industry. Keywords: Deer Industry New Zealand; Passion2Profit; deer-farming practice change