Chris Rogers has been employed full-time as a deer manager for the past 20 years and was educated at Sparshold College in Hampshire.
Qualifications
First and National Diploma in Game and Wildlife Conservation, specialising in deer and conservation.
Whilst studying for his National Diploma in 1998 he undertook a year out in Herefordshire working with “Blue” Thomas, a well known contract deer manager/culler. Work principally included wild and park deer management and carcass processing for sale to the general public.
Experience
Following graduation in 2000, Chris took a job with a sporting agency guiding British and foreign clients on deer in the Chilterns, pigeon shooting around Oxfordshire and the neighbouring counties.
In 2001 he was employed by the W.H. Smith family on their Hambleden estate near Henley on Thames. Alongside the fallow and muntjac management, Chris also set up Hambleden Wild Game, an enterprise processing the deer and game birds from the estates shooting activities, and selling them to trade outlets and the wider public via events and farmers markets.
In 2005 Chris moved to the Duke of Grafton’s 10,500 acre estate near Thetford. Taking the deer management back in-house he built a successful client stalking business for cull and trophy red, roe, muntjac and Chinese water deer. In addition to the deer management and general conservation work, Chris also set up a rifle range business in a disused quarry on the estate. Chris has also been involved in organising events for deer stalkers in his region such as charity rifle competitions and a red deer management day. He has spoken at several deer stalker evenings and meetings.
One of Chris’s proudest achievements is setting up and running the Breckland Deer Group red calf tagging program. This project, running for several years, undertook the tagging of red deer calves at Euston with the aim of finding how and where the red deer moved around the estate, neighbouring ground and the wider East Anglian region. Over a number of years the project had several successful results, with deer travelling some 20 miles in every direction, reinforcing that herding species need to be managed in a landscape scale way.
Recreationally, Chris has hunted abroad in Europe for the main large game species, red deer, boar, chamois, ibex and mouflon, across several countries including Romania, France, Germany, Croatia, Hungary and Spain. He is still keen to hunt in N America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Chris has attended several game fairs in a working capacity over the the years, measuring deer heads for the CIC. He has also helped the National Gamekeepers Organisation with skinning and butchery demos at the BBC Countryfile Live show. Chris gained experience in filming activities appearing on several international hunters programmes. Jim Shockey and Steen Andersen are two of the better known “celebrity “hunters Chris has guided for and appeared with. He has also been filmed with Jimmy Docherty (Jimmy’s Farm) during the calf tagging activities, and been interviewed by Radio 4’s Farming Today. Chris now features in Shooting & Country TV’s Deer Management series on YouTube showing viewers professional deer management, stalking tips and interesting deer stalking situations.
Further qualifications
- British Deer Farmers Association – On Farm Slaughter Course
- Royal Institute of Public Health – First Certificate in Food Safety
- National Gamekeepers Organisation – Game Meat Hygiene Course
- DMQ – Level 1/2, former accredited witness
- DMQ – Wild Boar Certificate
- Attended Deer Stalking Risks and Liabilities course run by Parker’s and Thornley Associates
- Qualified NRA Range Conducting Officer
Voluntary work
- Certified CIC Measurer for the CIC UKTEB
- National Gamekeepers Organisation – Suffolk Chairman sitting on the National Committee & NGO Deer Branch Committee Member
- British Deer Society – East Anglia Branch Committee Member
- Member of the East of England Deer Forum
