Is Venison going the same way as our game birds?

[Dan Newcombe]

Its always the same discussion:

How much would you say was a fair price for venison where everyone could walk away happy - no one has ever answered that question for me.

The dealers are buying the carcasses, they set the price and the other option is to get rid of them elsewhere (which obviously people do sometimes). Personally I cannot really see why something like dog food is not an option, a lot of kangaroo meat in Australia goes that way.

I've never really worried about what i am being paid for carcasses, i put them in the chiller and after that they are not my problem - unlike when i am putting one to the butchers when i have to skin them and deliver to the shop and then pick it up again or when i break them down myself which again takes a lot of time - essentially i have better things to be doing.

Ultimately, and it will not be a popular opinion - if you haven't got an outlet for carcasses and the landowner is putting on pressure to reduce numbers then you are not the right person to be doing the control because you cannot provide the service.

In my line of work we have a lot of stalkers who are in this bracket - you want them to shoot more numbers and they essentially refuse because they do not have facilities / outlets to deal with the resulting carcasses.

 

[foxdropper]

A fair price is one that keeps pace with the end product not stays the same for 15 years or more .Your attitude is the reason it has never risen ,not knocking it mate just saying .Killing first then expecting top dollar has never worked and never will as it’s a buyers market ,the product dosnt keep long enough to ring round on most occasions therefore your at the dealers mercy and why would he pay more when we have traditionally dropped stuff off and put up with whatever payment comes our way .Making way for more in the chiller from the next outing is the only goal some seem to have .
Same with feathered game .There is an end demand when dressed out but the initial product is worthless ,or so they have us believe .My own dealer can’t get enough of all of it even ringing for orders but try to get another 10 p out the fecker is like asking to ride his missus bareback for a year .
The numbers of shot feathered game he deals with is staggering but lads have to give them free of charge rather than bury them .Most of us live for the hunt not the result and I take my hat off to anyone doing anything worthwhile with it to boost the end income on a small scale .Larger dealers have taken the **** for far too long .

 

[SaOsborne]

Well been told by Meadstead tonight they are dropping Fallow to £1 kg and Roe to £2 kg with immediate effect. All down to oversupply, Hampshire game stopped taking in Fallow around 4 weeks ago, now there is big doodo around here as stalkers have been left with deer and no market. Message at have taken a few and dropped prices by half on an already low price from only 3 months ago of £2.40 per kg for fallow.

 

[User00040]

I have to agree with what you say,
I some times see carcasses hung up that I would have thrown in the dead pit!

Some years ago the NGO deer branch chairman came up with an idea of a assurance system whereby the stalker would have his own stamp that would prove he/she was only putting in animals that where of a high class and much care had be taken with hygiene and for this he\she would be given a bit of a premium, at the time the other Organisations thought it would be workable, I still think that some kind of assurance scheme would be of benefit to our industry.

Something similar to such a scheme exists in Scotland, if you have not heard of it look up 'Scottish Quality Wild Venison'.

Scottish Quality Wild Venison – Quality. Assured.

 

[Sheamus]

Thank you Osborne for your contribution to the Game Dealers Directory

 

[Dan Newcombe]

I still haven't heard anyone saying how much they want for a carcass or how much they would pay in the position of a game dealer.

 

[User00014]

I don’t see what all the hassle is about if your a recreational stalker @ £1/kg for herd species you are going to cover costs, I know I can and I’m shooting factory non toxics @ £2.50 a pop.
If there is a glut the price will drop that’s business.

I really can’t see what all the bitching it about.

there is no money to be made out of shooting deer and that’s fact.

 

[jon2]

Have you not weighed your's from dressed weight to chopped up? Muntjac have a thick coat so a 22lb dressed caucus will have close to 11lb of main meat. If you picked all the bits you could add 2lb more.

Tim.243

I think it was a rhetorical question.

 

[paulbshooting]

The roe venison price seems "ok" and demand is still there as most goes to France and the wider EU. Fallow at 50p per lb yesterday when I dropped two fallow does off. My chest freezer is already full of venison and needed to empty the chiller or would have butchered these two. For the first time ever, my two deer were the only two in the game dealers massive chiller! "Stalkers not dropping off now due to the price". But l have culls to do (esp on some new ground) and there are limits to how many you can process, consume and give away venison too. Very sad state of affairs and when you see the pricing and margins higher up the food chain. A bit like the milk price I guess, criminal. I had heard that the UK venison market was impacted by low cost imports from the EU. If that's true then we only have ourselves to blame, a bit like importing Chinese steel for UK infrastructure projects whilst the UK steel sector collapses. Rant over...and fingers crossed for some sensible prices in the New Year.

 

[25 Sharps]

The roe venison price seems "ok" and demand is still there as most goes to France and the wider EU. Fallow at 50p per lb yesterday when I dropped two fallow does off. My chest freezer is already full of venison and needed to empty the chiller or would have butchered these two. For the first time ever, my two deer were the only two in the game dealers massive chiller! "Stalkers not dropping off now due to the price". But l have culls to do (esp on some new ground) and there are limits to how many you can process, consume and give away venison too. Very sad state of affairs and when you see the pricing and margins higher up the food chain. A bit like the milk price I guess, criminal. I had heard that the UK venison market was impacted by low cost imports from the EU. If that's true then we only have ourselves to blame, a bit like importing Chinese steel for UK infrastructure projects whilst the UK steel sector collapses. Rant over...and fingers crossed for some sensible prices in the New Year.

Well, things went from bad to worse!

 

[rem284]

I don’t see what all the hassle is about if your a recreational stalker @ £1/kg for herd species you are going to cover costs, I know I can and I’m shooting factory non toxics @ £2.50 a pop.
If there is a glut the price will drop that’s business.

I really can’t see what all the bitching it about.

there is no money to be made out of shooting deer and that’s fact.

Ive been offered £1/kg. The big downside for me it takes a round trip of 100 miles and a the time to do so is about 2 and a half hours travelling. Unless i get a heap of big deer then it is not worth the cost of the mileage

 

[Bluey]

Your local dealer is taking the mick offering 50p per lb. It makes my blood boil! My dealer would no better than to dare offer me such. There is a healthy demand for wild UK venison.
This issue seems to be a problem specific to Southern Counties. No problem around here, and I see a fellow from Halifax offering very good prices on the forum only this week.
It has absolutely nothing to do with the use of thermal, that's for sure.
The people who have paid the dealer to take carcasses are plain stupid! They shouldn't be pulling the trigger on deer if they haven't pre arranged where its going to end up and at what price they will get for it.
Who ever continues to sell deer carcasses to this shameless dealer is only fuelling the problem. The dealer is "having their cake and eating it too"! You should stand together and demand a better price or stop using them. They would soon be paying a fair price when the supply dries up. Every stalker should demand a fair price or walk away. Your creating your own problem in taking that insulting price and the dealer is just taking advantage. Come on pull yourselves together, Southeners unite and knock this problem on the head.

Before i go out stalking I get in touch with my local butcher and ask him if he wants the carcus if I am successful. He always says yes so I know that i have a outlet for it

 

[mealiejimmy]

At least one game dealer in North Est Scotland has stopped taking roe - no outlet for it.

Cheers

Bruce

 

[VSS]

Before i go out stalking I get in touch with my local butcher and ask him if he wants the carcus if I am successful. He always says yes so I know that i have a outlet for it

And what if he says no? Would you still go stalking?

 

[Dunwaters]

It’s all a conspiracy masterminded by Barnier and the EU to make you abandon BREXIT.

 

[Bluey]

And what if he says no? Would you still go stalking?

Yes I would but I would not take the shot knowing that I had no outlet for it

 

[Dunwaters]

I dropped 2 sika off yesterday and frankly I was happy to get shut of them, absolutely rank and I can still smell them on my clothes.
And that’s the problem, I can’t or won’t eat it all or give it away, so it’s weigh and pay or drag it under a bush and walk away.

 

[VSS]

One of the most profitable things that has happened to me during my short stalking career has been to shoot 3 fallow in quick succession at last light. By the time I'd gralloched them and got them off the field it was late in the evening and the local game dealer - who would normally have taken them - had packed up for the day. So I had no choice but to take the carcasses home and get on the blower to find my own customers. It was surprisingly easy, and I haven't sold a carcass to a game dealer since. On the contrary, I could do with some extra carcasses to keep up with the demand.

 

[tozzybum]

Its more a profit/greed job the retail price at Costco and Morrisons shows massive price markup.
The over £20 a kg Costco charge bears no relation to the pennies a game dealer offers.
As Tim states its far easier to shift privately as its very popular and I get asked for it regularly.
As a recreational stalker I don't have surplus (4 last year)but regularly get asked for venison/pigeons/headshot bunnies.
At 15p a pigeon and a £1for 2x bunnies skinned someone is having a laugh.
My local restaurant does pigeon at a tenner a pop bit more than 15p .

 

[Freeforester]

Something similar to such a scheme exists in Scotland, if you have not heard of it look up 'Scottish Quality Wild Venison'.

Scottish Quality Wild Venison – Quality. Assured.

The chain is only as strong as the weakest link - I have had cause to reject SQWV carcasses in the past, bought off FCS, so to me the assurance scheme is of no value. The rank is but the stamp, the man is the gowd...