How much are Highland game paying

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Highland Game have a long term contract to take 95% of all deer shot on the Forestry and Land Scotland Estate. This has in effect fixed a very low price for venison.
 
Probably hardly helps that we dont shoot stags In summer when we really should do, big bachelor herds with the ability too select out immature stags that are missing typical tine structure even In earlier stages of velvet.

We shoot stags In summer time for personal consumption they have a very predictable carcass even compared too the early autumn hinds, there better table fare than the roe this time of year.
 
Norfolk Deer Search said:
Yes but by importing they can have it exactur size and weight they want it, no waste
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Yes, but that’s why most people who buy venison in supermarkets and restaurants say it has a strong gamey taste, because it’s been hanging too long on a boat from the other side of the world!

Importing Reds from far away lands does nothing to promote venison in the UK, quite the opposite.
 
Sol said:
Probably hardly helps that we dont shoot stags In summer when we really should do, big bachelor herds with the ability too select out immature stags that are missing typical tine structure even In earlier stages of velvet.

We shoot stags In summer time for personal consumption they have a very predictable carcass even compared too the early autumn hinds, there better table fare than the roe this time of year.
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How long does it take you to get a summer stag back to your chiller?
I generally don’t shoot stags in summer as it’s just too damn warm, although I might shoot some this year on one bit of ground as my chiller is nearby. Shot a calf an hour ago in 17C, but it was 3 minutes from the shot site to my chiller on the quad.
 
Mickeydredd said:
Yes, but that’s why most people who buy venison in supermarkets and restaurants say it has a strong gamey taste, because it’s been hanging too long on a boat from the other side of the world!

Importing Reds from far away lands does nothing to promote venison in the UK, quite the opposite.
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More than likely gas flushed or frozen!

They don’t care about the UK market, at the end of the day they’re in it to make money, and if they can’t make money getting universal size and weight in the UK, they’ll get it elsewhere because that’s where the profit is, businesses like that are not on about local markets, they’ll get it wherever they can get it at the right price to make the profit that is all that matters pounds shillings and p nothing more nothing less !
 
It’s not just a UK issue.
While we can’t sell wild venison here, we still must manage the herds. Granted we have orders of magnitudes more hunters, but the issue is always the same. Everyone is glad to kill a big whopping stud, but few want to do the work on culls and does.

Some states are trying new rules. In some places they have an “earn a Buck” rule. Must tag at least one doe, often 2, in order to have a valid Buck tag. In others the tags as allocated as unlimited antlerless, but only 1 antlered tag. And now we are expanding seasons, such that extra days are added onto season for antlerless only. Add to that we have in several states “donate a deer” whereby dropping off a shot deer costs you nothing and the meat then is processed (nearly all ground/minced) and provided to the poor or group homes.

At the end of the day it’s slow progress. In my lifetime I have seen expanding deer herds and back in the 70s it was one antered Deer and a single 3 day season. We now have some states with 5 month seasons and essentially unlimited deer tags (tag really just being a digital check code nowadays).
 
HonestJohn said:
Seems they’re also importing their venison from NZ now due to lack of Scottish red venison
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The farmed red deer have mostly been imported too, such is the apparent shortage of wild stock available for live capture.

It should be borne in mind that the NZ rut falls in latter part of March and April; I dont’ know whether the imported carcasses are wild or farmed, but irrespective of the origin, the biological changes in the deer at the period of the rut will impact on the eating qualities of the meat; that said, some plants may or may not have contingency measures in place for such predictable periods.

I always swapped any stag carcasses taken during the rut period for a decent hind later on, there being to my mind no sense in offering the venison from a rutting stag as a ‘quality’ product - more like a sure way of destroying a business and a reputation for selling excellent produce, or so I always felt.
 
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In Scotland there are now no close seasons male deer. I suspect this in part to allow a continuous supply of venison to the game dealers.

Certainly being able to give stags a bit of time to recover and then shoot them through the winter does result in much better quality venison. I took a good old ten point stag in March. It has been extremely good eating.

I get the point on temperature in mid and late summer. However on the Scottish Mountains you do have hot days. But you also get snow in July and August. And a beast when its alive is at about 34°C and is wrapped in a pretty good insulating fur coat, some even straight into a chiller it still takes a while to cool down. Evaporative cooling will cool a beast quite substantially until it gets to a chiller.
 
My cousin was getting 68p p/kg after all the levy’s . I’m trying to find out how much a wild deer is per kg in NZ and how much for farmed , surely they must be getting f….all for them to or the Gov is supporting them .
I agree with what has been said previously about the standard of some of the deer presented to the dealer because I’ve witnessed first hand some of the botch ups and manky deer , it got that bad that I complained to the dealer about putting mine in with someone else that obviously hadn’t got a clue or just didn’t give a toss and he was spoken to but most presented by stalkers took pride in there finished work .
 
It's a strange old world, given the numbers of deer you have in the wild, and they appear to be classed as a problem. I wonder why that rule was implemented in the first instance.
 
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