Geoff took over the family sheep farm in 1979 and started performance recording 200 of their commercial ewes which resulted in selling rams and starting a registered Romney stud as well.

In 1985 Geoff bought his first hinds and naturally recorded them too. After five years he was running approximately 200 share farmed hinds, all recorded, as well as his own small herd of around 50 hinds.

During the early years he selected on growth rates and then moved on to velvet as well, keeping 2yr old stags that cut a minimum of 1.3kg.

Since 2008 Altrive's 2yr old keepers have been averaging over 4kg.

Herd statistics

Herd makeup: Approx 300 hinds
All stag fawns kept until 2yr olds

Average velvet weights

2015 statisics

Approximately 90% of our 4yr and older stags were velveted as SS grade, with an average velvet weight of 9.41kg.

That's a pretty good average considering the top 40% of our 3yr olds stags are sold in our sale each year!

Some competition results

2009

1st place 3yr National Velvet Competition (Zama – owned with Brock Deer)
3rd place 3yr National Velvet Competition
2nd place National 2yr Velvet Competition

2010

1st place National 2yr Velvet Competition
1st place National 4yr Velvet Competition

2015

1st place National 3yr Velvet Competition
2nd place National 3yr Velvet Competition

2016

2nd, 4th and 8th place National 3yr Velvet Competition

2017

1st, 5th, 8th and 9th place National 3yr Velvet Competition

2018

2nd place National 3yr Velvet Competition,
4th place National 4yr Velvet Competition,
5th place National Open Competition