Farmers in drought-stricken Hawke's Bay are smiling and laughing again, not because it's raining, but because of one man's photo of stags at their boisterous best.
Grant Charteris who owns Forest Road Farm - NZ Red Deer, captured the velvet underground moment on his farm at near Waipawa on Sunday.
Charteris said he'd just fed out maize and grain to the herd as a supplementary feed when the conga line began and the photo opportunity "presented itself".
"The picture is of four mixed aged stags asserting their dominance at the end of the roar period, when stags have a rise in testosterone levels over the mating period."
"It is something that you tend to see on occasion at this time of year."