News

This is the place to keep up to date with news of special events, culinary innovations and new arrivals among our herds of deer.

 

THE RUT HAS STARTED!

13.09.2022

The rut has started at Sky Park Farm!  We have introduced the red, white and sika stags to their rutting groups. The rut will last until November. 

This is an impressive time on a deer farm with a full orchestra of sounds emanating from our sika, red and white deer. 

Sika are renowned for their repertoire of calls. From groaning stags to clacking noises, whistles and screams, they have a huge variety of vocalisations used in many different situations. Both sexes bark when alarmed. The red stags will roar and display to impress the hinds and ward off other stags – in the wild you would see them fighting to show off to the hinds.  

At the farm we single sire rut to control the exact genetic cross between sire and dam. Maintaining the quality of the progeny born on the farm is critical for both maintaining breeding lines and excellent venison. 

With our eyes on the future, we have identified which of our yearlings will be staying for breeding, as well as eight magnificent young stags that we will be keeping for future breeding. 

Prior to the rut, when in hard antler, all the stags’ antlers are removed for safety. This process is equivalent to trimming your toenails – removing the tissue that is no longer growing. The antlers are removed above the coronet leaving a small stump of dead antler. In wild deer, the antlers would fall off naturally, with the new antlers growing back in the Spring. 

Follow us via INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK to keep up to date with farm developments, and BOOK YOUR TICKETS to come and witness this fantastic display. 

 

a male red deer in a grass field with blue skies

Sky Park Farm’s Easter Eggs

12.03.2024

If you pop into the Visitor Centre this weekend you’ll see our new incubator set-up.  We have put a variety of bantam eggs in as it’s just 21 days until Easter and that’s exactly how long it takes for a […]

Chestnut Tree House

14.02.2024

Many of you will recall that in December, we held our annual Christmas light switch-on event, with proceeds from our ticket sales going to the local charity Chestnut Tree House. We are pleased to announce that our ticket sales raised […]

February Half Term

24.01.2024

It may be chilly but that doesn’t stop us planning lots of fun at Sky Park Farm.  As well as our adventure playground, deer and the snow machine, we have a week of bubbles, trains and reptiles lined up.   We’ll […]