The Limestone Coast Landscape Board has praised the proactive approach of domestic deer farmers as they near completion of inspections to assess compliance.

Landscape Officers have been working directly with over 45 deer farmers since May this year to ensure all farmed deer are tagged and confined to clearly differentiate them from feral deer.

The inspections are a critical first measure to prevent farmed deer escaping and increasing the feral deer population.

Limestone Coast Landscape Board Operations Manager Mike Stevens commended the efforts of landholders in adapting their deer farming practices to protect the region.

“Our Landscape Officers have inspected 168km of fencing and there has been a high level of compliance by the majority of domestic deer farmers.

“I would like to thank them for their proactive response to work collaboratively with the Limestone Coast Landscape Board,” Mr Stevens said.

“There is a handful of landholders that still need to meet the legislative standards.

“Our team remains committed to working with these few remaining landholders to achieve 100% voluntary compliance with fencing standards and the requirements to fit ear tags.”

The inspections, which covered the entire Limestone Coast, follow a two-year awareness campaign for registered deer farmers to outline compliance obligations of owning domestic deer and allowing time to implement ear tagging and fencing requirements.

Mr Stevens also advised that escaped farmed deer with a visible ear tag fitted, cannot be destroyed for seven days to allow the owner time to retrieve them.

“We would like to thank the wider community and adjoining landholders for their vigilance in reporting escaped domestic deer,” he said.

Escaped farmed deer should be reported via the LC Landscape Board website at www.landscape.sa.gov.au/lc or to the nearest regional office at Mount Gambier (08) 8735 1204 or Keith (08) 8755 1620.