Venison Price drop!

[Dunwaters]

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.

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.

That’s all extra work, fine if you have the time but for a lot of stalkers it’s not practical.
Ive given a fair few carcasses and joints away over the year, but if I’ve got 4 or more to dispose of, its weigh and pay most of the time.
We have belatedly come to the conclusion here that we need to shoot a lot more deer, part of the strategy is an expanded venison market and a guaranteed minimum price.
Its not implemented yet, but I’ll be interested in seeing what the base price is, however it goes it’s got to be better than the current free for all.

 

[Jimbob39]

The estate owner doesnt want any to go to game dealers. Have a decent number of people who buy off Facebook in the fur which is easier for us to deal with. Dealers paying peanuts is a poor show in my opinion.

 

[75]

Think yourselves lucky you’ve got a game dealer

Nearest one to me is 1hr45mins or minimum of 6 carcasses for collection.

I’ve created my own market in the area through necessity as I shoot 90% reds and as per previous posts, very few folk want a whole red in the skin. Majority I do now go “trade” into farm shops, butchers or restaurants and I’ve got folk actively ringing me up asking for more. I’ve also got a relationship with a trade butcher and he’ll do a tidy job for me if I need to sell “half a deer box” to general public via FB / Giving up the Game.

 

[Utectok]

So I tried to sell a couple of stags I shot in the highlands a week or two ago and nobody would take them and if they did they were going to give me £0.80p a kilo. One game dealer said he has 40% of all the deer he handles come through in October and he simply doesn’t have the staff to process them. August was a different matter

 

[.222roebuck]

I always butcher into sensible sized bits, so boned haunches or cut into steaks, loins, bags of stewing or mince.

The cost is time and a few vac pack bags.

That’s great doing the odd carcass I’m shooting 2 a week on average through the year ( obviously more in winter on does / hinds ) there just wouldn’t be time for me to butcher them all and work , that’s why I sell a few carcasses and give a few away don’t get me wrong I bet I butcher half of them but there’s no way I could do them all

 

[VSS]

That’s great doing the odd carcass I’m shooting 2 a week on average through the year ( obviously more in winter on does / hinds ) there just wouldn’t be time for me to butcher them all and work , that’s why I sell a few carcasses and give a few away don’t get me wrong I bet I butcher half of them but there’s no way I could do them all

2 per week is not many. A part time "Fred-in-a-shed" (shades of NDS there. Reference to "tits"and "sink" required!) shouldn't have any problem processing and selling as few as that, if they wanted to. And that's the crux of it. If you don't want to butcher and sell them then game dealer is the only other option. In effect, recreational stalkers are using game dealers as a disposal service. How much does the local council pay you for putting your wheelie bin out each week?

 

[Overlay]

2 per week is not many. A part time "Fred-in-a-shed" (shades of NDS there. Reference to "tits"and "sink" required!) shouldn't have any problem processing and selling as few as that, if they wanted to. And that's the crux of it. If you don't want to butcher and sell them then game dealer is the only other option. In effect, recreational stalkers are using game dealers as a disposal service. How much does the local council pay you for putting your wheelie bin out each week?

Hi Vss
i helped a mate butcher up a big Red properly the other day, it was like a route march in as much don’t stop until your done - I wouldn’t do 2 of them week - I can understand why the GD is very very handy some times irrespective of what you get per kg

 

[VSS]

Hi Vss
i helped a mate butcher up a big Red properly the other day, it was like a route march in as much don’t stop until your done - I wouldn’t do 2 of them week - I can understand why the GD is very very handy some times irrespective of what you get per kg

Well that's the point, isn't it. If you can't or don't want to cut them up yourself then either don't shoot them or be grateful that there's a disposal service that you don't have to pay for.
But it's tough for the pro or semi-pro stalkers who are maybe shooting as many as 5-10 per week and need the revenue.

I think the answer is for game dealers to pay considerably more, but be absolutely ruthless about rejecting carcasses that aren't up to the mark. Or charge a disposal fee for those carcasses. Stalkers who repeatedly find themselves turned away or faced with a bill would either up their game or give up.

 

[Overlay]

Well that's the point, isn't it. If you can't or don't want to cut them up yourself then either don't shoot them or be grateful that there's a disposal service that you don't have to pay for.
But it's tough for the pro or semi-pro stalkers who are maybe shooting as many as 5-10 per week and need the revenue.

I think the answer is for game dealers to pay considerably more, but be absolutely ruthless about rejecting carcasses that aren't up to the mark. Or charge a disposal fee for those carcasses. Stalkers who repeatedly find themselves turned away or faced with a bill would either up their game or give up.

yep good point agree 100%
All the effort starts after you send the round that effort needs to be the same through to the end you won’t get that cheap, top end carcasses deserve top end money for all
The way I look at it shot well, prepared and cared for carcasses deserve good money it doesn’t matter whether it’s one or 31 deer if you send in crap you get crap money or charged for disposal like you say either up your game and get paid a reasonable amount or goeshomers and get nought

 

[CookM]

Nobody gets the liver apart from me. Best bit.

Too right,liver heart and kidneys bit of onion and smoky streaky,lovely.
My wife was a veggie when l first moved her into my cottage ,not freaky about me shooting things.
Frying roe liver converted her.

 

[VSS]

Too right,liver heart and kidneys bit of onion and smoky streaky,lovely.
My wife was a veggie when l first moved her into my cottage ,not freaky about me shooting things.
Frying roe liver converted her.

If you can get it into the frying pan while it's still warm from the animal that takes it to a whole new level of deliciousness

 

[.222roebuck]

Personally I’d say there’s few recreational stalkers killing in the region of 100 deer a year less still those of a larger species , my point being is that along side this I’m working so yes I agree a GD is the answer to my problem, as I said I just wouldn’t have the time to butcher them all , but that makes little odds to my landowners who want them shot regardless and they’re the boss

2 per week is not many. A part time "Fred-in-a-shed" (shades of NDS there. Reference to "tits"and "sink" required!) shouldn't have any problem processing and selling as few as that, if they wanted to. And that's the crux of it. If you don't want to butcher and sell them then game dealer is the only other option. In effect, recreational stalkers are using game dealers as a disposal service. How much does the local council pay you for putting your wheelie bin out each week?

 

[VSS]

Personally I’d say there’s few recreational stalkers killing in the region of 100 deer a year

More than you think, I expect.

 

[.222roebuck]

Not in my experience However yours may be different

More than you think, I expect.

 

[darrel]

I cant see the venison market improving any time soon the dealers will keep paying low prices
but when its in the shops supermarkets the price is rediculasly high

 

[VSS]

I cant see the venison market improving any time soon the dealers will keep paying low prices
but when its in the shops supermarkets the price is rediculasly high

The retail price is about right.

 

[HonestJohn]

it’s like the non-lead debate, there’s sweet FA you can do except for moan about it. Sad but true.. just accept it and move on,,or move to France where protesting about insignificant matters for the sake of principle is still rife.

 

[User00047]

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

Game dealer cartels rob us.

I’d rather feed it to the dogs.

You said it yourself there…
Everything else is costing more.
Insurance is costing more.
Fuel is costing more.
Qualifications and training cost more…
Do you not think game dealers have to pay for all this?
And also have extortionate electricity bills on top each month?
They still have to make a profit as it’s a business.
It’s very simple. If you don’t want to sell them your carcasses/venison at their prices then just don’t sell it them.
The problem here boils down to greed and I’m not talking about game dealers being greedy. Too many stalkers have too much ground to cover and are not willing to share with other people. This creates problems because not enough deer get shot and taken for home consumption. Then there are these guys who shoot more than they can eat or give away and somehow want to be paid a premium for doing their hobby!
There’s plenty of young newbies who’d be very grateful to get out and shoot a few deer each year to take home and eat without worrying about making a profit!

 

[75]

Well that's the point, isn't it. If you can't or don't want to cut them up yourself then either don't shoot them or be grateful that there's a disposal service that you don't have to pay for.

Nail on head for me.

if you’re a recreational stalker and shooting more than you can deal with yourself then gamedealers are providing you a service not the other way around.

 

[nun_hunter]

If I could get a big enough mincer I'd drop whole carcasses in for dog food. Save me a fortune on what raw dog food costs.

As it is I'm pretty slack with the knife when trimming and the dog gets all the bones with a fair bit of meat left on. Life's too short to be scraping bones clean of every bit of meat anyway it's quite a sight to see him happily devour half a fallow ribcage then sleep it off!