DEER NEWS
MEDIA RELEASE
THURSDAY 12TH JULY 2012
Peel Forest Estate Buys Windermere Stud
Peel Forest Estate, based in South Canterbury, has announced today that it has purchased the Pure Warnham and
Warnham-Woburn breeding herd along with selected sires, semen, embryos and the Windermere name from the award winning
Windermere Red Deer Stud near Hamilton.
Windermere stud has been specialising in breeding for superior velvet genetics for nearly twenty five years providing
outstanding sires to the deer industry with a high degree of consistency and reliability.
‘Our primary focus was always to strive for the best velvet antler structure suited to the commercial velvet industry.
We have found our Pure Warnham Park bloodlines undoubtedly the most reliable in achieving this,’ owner of Windermere,
John Kempthorne says.
In recent years, the Windermere stud has achieved the status of the industry’s leading Warnham Park velvet herd with an
extensive list of awards from the National Velvet and North Island Velvet competitions. At the 2011 National Velvet
Competition the two heaviest red heads were awarded to Windermere stags, along with the winner of the prestigious three
year class.
Windermere have managed to maintain specialist velvet lines without mixing with trophy genetics and the challenge when
looking to sell the stud was to ensure it found a suitable home where these bloodlines can continue to be advanced and
remain available to farmers.
‘We have always resisted the temptation to mix our lines and genetics, and we wanted to ensure that this continued. We
are happy that the stud is going to Peel Forest Estate because they are an extremely well managed and professional
operation and the Windermere velvet genetics will complement their other strengths,’ Kempthorne says.
Peel Forest Estate owner, Graham Carr, is thrilled with the purchase and is planning to maintain and advance the
Windermere herd.
‘This is an important strategic acquisition for Peel Forest Estate. It is also important for the industry that the
Windermere Warnham stud has been kept in its entirety which will enable the industry to continue to benefit from John’s
passion and hardworking over the years in developing these top class genetics.’
‘It also brings the stud closer to the main body of the industry with 70% of deer now in the South Island. Also on a
purely commercial basis for us at Peel Forest Estate where we harvest over 2,000 velvet stags it will give our
velvetting herd a huge boost,’ Graham Carr says.
Windermere Stud will be selling Sire Stags by Private Treaty for the next two seasons, thereafter Peel Forest Estate
will be the primary source of these genetics.
‘It has been an immense pleasure breeding this herd and watching it become what it is today, and we look forward to
following it future developments at Peel Forest Estate with Steve and Graham,’ Kempthorne says.
ENDS