English Herds
The two main strains of English deer that make up our herd at Foveran are from Warnham and Woburn bloodlines.
The Warnham herd, owned by the Lucas family, has had a strong influence in the deer introduced into New Zealand. For instance the Poulter herd, introduced in the early 1900s at the Waimakariri, consistently grew big palmated multi-point heads and latterly introduced into New Zealand for farming in the late 1980s. They have proven themselves time and time again with record heads and velvet weights. An example would be William John, unquestionably one of the best Warnham ever produced, with a record antler of 532 SCI at 5 years with 68.5" outside spread. And then the next year he had a huge head of 19.2kg Hard Horn and 552 SCI est. On top of that is Mountbatten (Hercules x Duncan, Sire of Prince Philip). One of the most highly regarded Warnham stags in the country and of course "Sovereign."
The Woburn Abbey herd has also influenced our subsequent deer herds around New Zealand with genetics such as Russell, Harvey, Kane, Hector, Bradford, Lord T and Berry End; and others too numerous to mention but equally important. Hector last year scored 623 SCI which firmly cements him as one of the leading trophy sires in the industry.
The crossing of the lines over traditional German and Eastern bases have left new antler records all over the country. The importance of these English introductions to our now famed German herds cements this. Their multi-point antlers are very heritable and show what a strong genetic strain of deer they are.
