Venison Price drop!

[potshotpat]

This is becoming a more appealing option as I've always got a freezer full of mince but run out of steaks and haunches pretty quickly.

This above has been the main set back within the meat trade for years. It's not what you sell it's what you're left with. See what supermarkets have done over the years a lot of ready meals are based around mince. Ask any game dealer what would he rather sell, primal cuts or stew and mince and my money's on stew and mince. If anyone on here thinks Joe public is going to be queuing around the block to buy Venison or game birds it ain't going to happen. I noticed this week that one of the shooting organisations that was set up to promote the benefits of all game meat, to the general public. Has now been sold on / passed on to some other group, after only a few years of being started. The management of the first group if I remember correctly were on exceptional salaries. My prediction for this scheme is that it'll die a quiet death, sink below the horizon and be forgotten. Also this post will be brought up again about two or three times a year for the next twenty years. Good luck all.

 

[User00040]

Damned indeed.

Landowners can get a £90/hectare deer management grant with no requirement to pass it on to pay deer managers / stalkers costs, whilst exerting more and more pressure on us to increase culls even though deer are transitory between woods, estates and land ownership.

Our costs continue to go up, diesel, copper, qualifications, equipment etc.

Game dealer cartels rob us.

I’d rather feed it to the dogs.

Anyone got an idea what to do?

Farmers dump produce when the cost to produce exceeds what the market will pay, no point working for no take home profit.

Ah well, a video of 200+ freshly shot deer dumped in a dead hole sent into every national news outlet should short things out.

Anyone going to volounteer for this?

I'll drive the tractor/JCB

 

[Tim.243]

Anyone got an idea what to do?

Farmers dump produce when the cost to produce exceeds what the market will pay, no point working for no take home profit.

Ah well, a video of 200+ freshly shot deer dumped in a dead hole sent into every national news outlet should short things out.

Anyone going to volounteer for this?

I'll drive the tractor/JCB

Your the one with all the ideas/qualifications/contacts/what kit to use! Know is your time to shine.

 

[nun_hunter]

Anyone got an idea what to do?

Farmers dump produce when the cost to produce exceeds what the market will pay, no point working for no take home profit.

Ah well, a video of 200+ freshly shot deer dumped in a dead hole sent into every national news outlet should short things out.

Anyone going to volounteer for this?

I'll drive the tractor/JCB

That'll just encourage those who want to introduce wolves. "Look humans are wasting the deer they kill for fun, wolves don't want a thing!"

 

[woodlandvenison1]

It is what it is at the end of the day the trouble is there is to many people doing it where they have to much ground so they have to get out all the time so then they say I ain’t getting enough out of it well every one has a choice

the question is should estates not be paying stalkers to go out and manage the deer ???

I’m shooting between 50-100 a month quite comfortably going out 3/4 times a week I’m not going to stop shooting them just because of the price I took the land on to do a job for the estate that’s the way I look at it

Also I bet 90% of the people sending deer in ain’t even declaring it well they might also be in for a big shock when the tax man looks back and sees they been doing it for 5/6 years

Any one with the right business sense trying to make a living from venison should know that the only way is to either process it all your self and sell it or do it on a client basis it’s not difficult to do the numbers any one thinking they can make a living from shooting the deer them self is living on a different planet

 

[User00040]

That'll just encourage those who want to introduce wolves. "Look humans are wasting the deer they kill for fun, wolves don't want a thing!"

Price per wolf pelt...

 

[JTO]

See what supermarkets have done over the years a lot of ready meals are based around mince. Ask any game dealer what would he rather sell, primal cuts or stew and mince and my money's on stew and mince.

This has been my conclusion after reading this thread. Just mince the lot!
Do schools teach cookery any more, or just microwave instructions?

 

[VSS]

the question is should estates not be paying stalkers to go out and manage the deer ???

Yes, of course they should.
And the sale / disposal of the carcasses becomes the Estate's problem.

 

[neilamph]

Blimey Malc 33 years ago I was getting £1 a pound.

I also remember them days .....roe always fetched a slightly higher premium at a £1 a lb and the bigger species .80p a lb

 

[skywull]

Try being a dairy farmer...

we dont get grants

 

[VSS]

we dont get grants

Who doesn't? Stalkers?
There's a lot of grant money floating about out there, if you care to look for it:
My DSC1 course was subsidised by Welsh Government. My larder was grant funded. Highseats were provided by the Deer Initiative. Next week I'm attending a fully-funded venison butchery course. The design of my venison logo and my marketing material was grant funded. And so on.....

 

[Hayduke]

Who doesn't? Stalkers?
There's a lot of grant money floating about out there, if you care to look for it:
My DSC1 course was subsidised by Welsh Government. My larder was grant funded. Highseats were provided by the Deer Initiative. Next week I'm attending a fully-funded venison butchery course. The design of my venison logo and my marketing material was grant funded. And so on.....

Well done, all that form filling will make you more of a pen pusher and keyboard puncher than a farmer or deer manager!
I’m pulling your leg, but I don’t have the time or interest in more tedious forms and jumping through government hoops.

 

[User00047]

Yes, of course they should.
And the sale / disposal of the carcasses becomes the Estate's problem.

I feel that’s a little bit unrealistic unless the paid person is providing another service, for example guiding paying guests or something else of use.
Why would estates want to pay someone to lumber them with this “problem” of disposing of a load of carcasses.
Well run estates recognise deer as an asset and not just a pest. Yes, sometimes the numbers have gotten out of control and deer need to be hit hard but the answer is in encouraging better management techniques and strategies.

Many estates have syndicate teams who pay or even shoot for free but the venison remains estate property. Sale of butchered venison direct from the estate helps pay for larder facilities and electric chillers, highseats, butchery services and all other associated costs. It also delivers a high quality product to the public at a reasonable price, thus raising the profile of wild venison in the UK.

Big estates/areas of land with just one guy struggling to manage numbers as a hobby is a ridiculous concept and the idea that he should be paid money to compensate him for his failed attempt is ridiculous.

 

[User00040]

I feel that’s a little bit unrealistic unless the paid person is providing another service, for example guiding paying guests or something else of use.
Why would estates want to pay someone to lumber them with this “problem” of disposing of a load of carcasses.
Well run estates recognise deer as an asset and not just a pest. Yes, sometimes the numbers have gotten out of control and deer need to be hit hard but the answer is in encouraging better management techniques and strategies.

Many estates have syndicate teams who pay or even shoot for free but the venison remains estate property. Sale of butchered venison direct from the estate helps pay for larder facilities and electric chillers, highseats, butchery services and all other associated costs. It also delivers a high quality product to the public at a reasonable price, thus raising the profile of wild venison in the UK.

Big estates/areas of land with just one guy struggling to manage numbers as a hobby is a ridiculous concept and the idea that he should be paid money to compensate him for his failed attempt is ridiculous.

All good in theory until employment law and liability get involved, especially if there has been an accident.

When that happens, it all goes up in smoke!

 

[Taff]

Who doesn't? Stalkers?
There's a lot of grant money floating about out there, if you care to look for it:
My DSC1 course was subsidised by Welsh Government. My larder was grant funded. Highseats were provided by the Deer Initiative. Next week I'm attending a fully-funded venison butchery course. The design of my venison logo and my marketing material was grant funded. And so on.....

And people complain about people on benefits

 

[Tim.243]

Who doesn't? Stalkers?
There's a lot of grant money floating about out there, if you care to look for it:
My DSC1 course was subsidised by Welsh Government. My larder was grant funded. Highseats were provided by the Deer Initiative. Next week I'm attending a fully-funded venison butchery course. The design of my venison logo and my marketing material was grant funded. And so on.....

@Ade8mm

 

[kieran222]

Being in the same shoes as the rest of the public, my main issue is often that there simply is not space in a city centre flat to hang up a carcass to skin.

I can repurpose the dining table to work on the butchery, but frankly have nowhere that makes it immediately possible to hang to skin (although I am currently mulling the idea of one of those door frame exercise/pull up bars...)

So the chap I would get carcasses off (before I've gone for my own FAC and stalking) would skin them for me for a bit extra. But I imagine there would be even more takers if a note was added to the offering post (on Giving Up the Game for example) to say either 1) folk would be welcome to skin the beast before taking it away with them or 2) offered to show how to skin.

I offered this on fb Giving Up The Game. I said that I would skin and break the carcase down to primals for an extra 50p per kg. Had about 10 people ask to come but when arranging dates about half couldn't make it for various reasons (excuses ). The ones who did come had never done it before but I think would have been happy to do it themselves in future.
I don't bother now unless someone was to ask but I sell my surplus to a Willo Game which is fairly local to me. But when prices really drop I end up giving a lot away. I have a few people who would never refuse a carcase, no matter how often you offered. No idea what they do with them, probably selling it .

 

[kieran222]

..

 

[Ade8mm]

@Ade8mm

????

 

[nun_hunter]

I feel that’s a little bit unrealistic unless the paid person is providing another service, for example guiding paying guests or something else of use.
Why would estates want to pay someone to lumber them with this “problem” of disposing of a load of carcasses.
Well run estates recognise deer as an asset and not just a pest. Yes, sometimes the numbers have gotten out of control and deer need to be hit hard but the answer is in encouraging better management techniques and strategies.

Many estates have syndicate teams who pay or even shoot for free but the venison remains estate property. Sale of butchered venison direct from the estate helps pay for larder facilities and electric chillers, highseats, butchery services and all other associated costs. It also delivers a high quality product to the public at a reasonable price, thus raising the profile of wild venison in the UK.

Big estates/areas of land with just one guy struggling to manage numbers as a hobby is a ridiculous concept and the idea that he should be paid money to compensate him for his failed attempt is ridiculous.

Estates and landowners charge people simply because they can.

If we had widespread public access hunting in the UK then these estates would struggle. People would go elsewhere just as they do in countries that have public hunting land.

Unfortunately this is the situation we're in and all the while people are willing to pay then there will always be someone happy to charge them.