2008 was quite a busy year for the Irish Trophy Commission; with the CIC trophy judges attended both Shanes castle and Birr castle game fairs and also the IDS’s AGM, as well as making numerous trips around the country. Some very impressive trophies were presented for assessment, the best coming from the West and the North West of the country, Galway, Donegal, Sligo and Fermanagh in particular.


2008 was also quite different from previous years, as most other years we would have measured far more Sika than we would have Fallow or Reds. But this year saw quite a turn around, with the number of Reds out numbering Sika by at least two to one. Once again, the quality of the fallow bucks was very disappointing, no doubt the result of indiscriminate shooting and the absence of any real management plan, with most bucks been shot in the fourth or fifth year and in some cases even sooner, well before the animal has reached its prime. A Fallow Buck will have, fully developed palms after the fourth head, but the antler growth will only have peaked in its ninth or tenth year.
A Red stag will have its full head once it reaches adult stage, about seven years of age. However, the antlers will continue to grow in length and weight up until the stag reaches about twelve years. Then the antlers start to go back, deteriorate with age. While a Sika stag can have as many as 6 or 8 points from its second head on, it will only have a fully developed head in its ninth or tenth year.


It should be noted, that the majority of Gold medals, issued by the Irish Trophy Commission for trophy Red stags, scoring in excess CIC195 points, the award level for gold, were awarded for old stags, most of them past their prime breeding age. The largest antlers are carried at the transitional age, between the prime and post-prime stages of the animal. Males in this age group can be harvested as best trophy bearers and as a reward for the conservation of the primes. The older the stag, the greater the length, Weight, and Circumference of the main beams will be, these are the main factors that influence the scoring of a trophy.


For this reason, it is most important that a stalker knows how many deer are on the ground, including species, gender and age. It is only then that he can put into practice a good management plan. A deer stalker from Donegal, who I know very well, has such knowledge of the deer under his charge that he carries out selective culling on the hinds, usually taking the very old and some of the yearlings.


While on the issue of hinds, most conversations, if not all, regarding trophies, are totally consumed by talk of stags and bucks, but very little is ever mentioned about hinds or does. There is a saying “Don’t shoot the hind that lays the golden medal”. Yes, hinds do play a very important role. A deer breeder once told me, that one of his hinds had produced six stag calves over consecutive years, all of which developed into very fine trophy bearers. It is possible to pick out the strong aggressive hind in a herd, but this will involve a lot of observation. Some deer breeders, not trophy breeders, tend to cull the lead hind as they often prove to be very troublesome, but in the wild they do actually hold the herd together.


The Irish Trophy Commission issued its first ever medal for an African game species in 2008, the gold medal Bush Buck was secured by John Creedon from county Cork in the Eastern Cape while on safari in South Africa.


The CIC – Irish Trophy Commission will have a stand at the following events during the year, Shanes Castle, Birr Castle and Ballinlough Castle game fairs.


Irish National Exhibition & Trophy Commission report by Joe Murphy

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