I’m sticking my head above the parapet here in the full knowledge members will take aim and shoot me down if I’ve got something wrong. But at 62 I think I’m old and grumpy enough to take it. Sikamalc has already pointed out to me a small mistake with the sika images… well, he does know more than most about this species.
So I’m shamelessly promoting my new book here.
With a background as a licensed slaughterman of many years standing and a meat inspector for 10 years with the Meat Hygiene Service (later the Food Standards Agency), I do feel I have a fair bit to offer the stalking community. On the deer side I’ve been lucky enough to shoot 3 adjoining Estates for over 25 years now as sole stalker, taking an average of around 100 (mainly) does a year.
I’ve mentored and also shot with quite a number of stalkers over the years and have noticed that while most were good and, more importantly, safe shots, perhaps knife and internal identification skills may have been lacking at times (step forward Tim).
I’ve always been struck by the disconnect between the red meat industry and wild venison production. We kill around 250 000 sheep, 50 000 cattle and 200 000 pigs weekly in the UK, (it fluctuates a little depending on the season), so you would hope some of this knowledge would filter across at grassroots level to the much smaller wild venison arena. Bluntly, the UK processes many more domesticated livestock animals each and every 5 working days than deer are killed in a year, see here.
Many commercial abattoirs are very large concerns, but there are still enough smaller places around that could teach some useful knife and slaughtering skills to deer stalkers. Judging from a lot of posts on YouTube, many amateur butchers would last only a few minutes if they turned up at one of those small abattoirs for a day’s work with an idea to ‘perform the grallochs’. Evisceration in a commercial premises is regarded as a more lowly task carried out by trainees, improvers or the older personnel not so quick or strong as they once were. This alone highlights the gulf between the two areas.
So I set out to help rectify this in some small way. The book covers all aspects of stalking, but is heavy on events after the shot with a large chapter on diseases with numerous photographs where such identification would help. I have been lucky in this regard with images given where I did not have my own by senior inspector friends and a Professor working at the University of Bristol Veterinary school. I believe it is the most thorough roundup of deer conditions, certainly I haven’t come across anything else as complete.
I’ve also given my thoughts on sticking, clean handling during extraction, lardering and larder equipment and design, the processing of carcasses and also legislation from a practical point of view; my observations are all from experience, not just a reading of the regulations or ‘best practice’.
Some views contradict widely accepted practices in stalking circles, but I do attempt a robust defence. Head or neck shot animals, for example should, I believe, be bled asap, certainly well within 30 minutes of shooting, and not left until they are hung back at the chiller to reduce the blood spillage in the back if a truck. Don’t try to tell me this doesn’t happen!
Anyhoo, the book is available from the Crowood Press, advertised on this site:
Classified - Other items - New Stalking book, (as I have set up as a Trade member), if anyone is interested to see how I view things from a somewhat different angle. If this starts some debates on here it’s all good, airing differing views publicly so all can benefit. Some might even be polite exchanges!
So I’m shamelessly promoting my new book here.
With a background as a licensed slaughterman of many years standing and a meat inspector for 10 years with the Meat Hygiene Service (later the Food Standards Agency), I do feel I have a fair bit to offer the stalking community. On the deer side I’ve been lucky enough to shoot 3 adjoining Estates for over 25 years now as sole stalker, taking an average of around 100 (mainly) does a year.
I’ve mentored and also shot with quite a number of stalkers over the years and have noticed that while most were good and, more importantly, safe shots, perhaps knife and internal identification skills may have been lacking at times (step forward Tim).
I’ve always been struck by the disconnect between the red meat industry and wild venison production. We kill around 250 000 sheep, 50 000 cattle and 200 000 pigs weekly in the UK, (it fluctuates a little depending on the season), so you would hope some of this knowledge would filter across at grassroots level to the much smaller wild venison arena. Bluntly, the UK processes many more domesticated livestock animals each and every 5 working days than deer are killed in a year, see here.
Many commercial abattoirs are very large concerns, but there are still enough smaller places around that could teach some useful knife and slaughtering skills to deer stalkers. Judging from a lot of posts on YouTube, many amateur butchers would last only a few minutes if they turned up at one of those small abattoirs for a day’s work with an idea to ‘perform the grallochs’. Evisceration in a commercial premises is regarded as a more lowly task carried out by trainees, improvers or the older personnel not so quick or strong as they once were. This alone highlights the gulf between the two areas.
So I set out to help rectify this in some small way. The book covers all aspects of stalking, but is heavy on events after the shot with a large chapter on diseases with numerous photographs where such identification would help. I have been lucky in this regard with images given where I did not have my own by senior inspector friends and a Professor working at the University of Bristol Veterinary school. I believe it is the most thorough roundup of deer conditions, certainly I haven’t come across anything else as complete.
I’ve also given my thoughts on sticking, clean handling during extraction, lardering and larder equipment and design, the processing of carcasses and also legislation from a practical point of view; my observations are all from experience, not just a reading of the regulations or ‘best practice’.
Some views contradict widely accepted practices in stalking circles, but I do attempt a robust defence. Head or neck shot animals, for example should, I believe, be bled asap, certainly well within 30 minutes of shooting, and not left until they are hung back at the chiller to reduce the blood spillage in the back if a truck. Don’t try to tell me this doesn’t happen!
Anyhoo, the book is available from the Crowood Press, advertised on this site:
Classified - Other items - New Stalking book, (as I have set up as a Trade member), if anyone is interested to see how I view things from a somewhat different angle. If this starts some debates on here it’s all good, airing differing views publicly so all can benefit. Some might even be polite exchanges!
Its not an argument about whether anyone does suspended grallochs or not.
Well worth the money in my opinion.
