Venison Prices

[sauer]

Maybe in North Wales but not in the North East.

can i ask .. and be honest ... how much time / effort have you put in to pushing / advertising trying to promote your venison ??
is it priced keenly enough to gather interest and not put folk off?
what demographic of folk you aiming for ? ( cheap and everyone or luxury high end consumer ?)

as said above markets there ... if not make one !

i spoke to quite a few who say they cant sell but when pushed discover they done next to bu55er all to promote or market it ...and expect folk to just walk in to their larder in droves


Paul

 

[HonestJohn]

I don't want to bore you with the details (and its a bloody licencing minefield thanks to local/national government) but let's just say I am comfortable with my current status.

I also thought the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill is scrapping Venison Dealers licences, reviving the 'hunters local exemption' that exists in England?

That’s good

I thought here in Scotland we still have the hunters exemption, and either the buyer or seller must be a venison dealer (licensed). Selling as cuts I believe you have to be a food business. Hence, I sell to dealers straight from the field in the fur, but game going to friends is on a barter system and not mandatory

 

[kieran222]

I have a few customers who will take 3-6 deer at a time in the skin (Roe). I get a fair price for them. The rest I butcher and give back to the land owners. I also have one regular who will swap about 80lb of lamb and pork for venison which avoids the boredom of a venison only meat diet. I have sold a few on Giving Up The Game but you have to be careful or you will get messed around by time wasters.

I can never understand the price that venison sells for in a butchers as there are a lot of people who just don't like the taste (not interested in hearing from people who love it). I enjoy venison but if I was asked to choose between beef and venison, it would definitely be beef.
Perhaps the dislike for venison is partly to do with the fact that you have to eat it on the rare side which puts a lot of people off.

If I had friends who were prepared to butcher the deer for themselves I would happily give away most of what I shoot.

 

[User00056]

I also thought the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill is scrapping Venison Dealers licences, reviving the 'hunters local exemption' that exists in England?

Don't get me started. I'd prefer to see the VDL kept, and the exemption changed to allow small processors to buy from legitimate sources (such as DSC qualified stalkers) rather than having it dependant on the producer being part of the hunting party. Seems to me that's completely counter-productive to getting wild local venison to local consumers. And a wider network of smaller guys would perhaps help break the stranglehold bloody gamedealers have on the market. Let them supply supermarkets, and the rest of us can get on with doing it properly!

 

[sauer]

Perhaps the dislike for venison is partly to do with the fact that you have to eat it on the rare side which puts a lot of people off.

Who says you have to eat it rare ?
Plenty recipes where simple minxe is well cooked and amazing
Mince n tatties
Spaghetti bolognaise

Then you have peri peri pulled vension pies etc
List goes on .... none of them near rare

 

[Spear Chucker]

Don't worry, the carcasess will all be worth a lot more once they don't contain lead.....

And we're off again!!

 

[VSS]

I have a few customers who will take 3-6 deer at a time in the skin (Roe). I get a fair price for them. The rest I butcher and give back to the land owners. I also have one regular who will swap about 80lb of lamb and pork for venison which avoids the boredom of a venison only meat diet. I have sold a few on Giving Up The Game but you have to be careful or you will get messed around by time wasters.

I can never understand the price that venison sells for in a butchers as there are a lot of people who just don't like the taste (not interested in hearing from people who love it). I enjoy venison but if I was asked to choose between beef and venison, it would definitely be beef.
Perhaps the dislike for venison is partly to do with the fact that you have to eat it on the rare side which puts a lot of people off.

If I had friends who were prepared to butcher the deer for themselves I would happily give away most of what I shoot.

I'd choose venison over beef any day.
Beef is vastly overrated, in my opinion.

 

[Taff]

The same old story, 1 pound a pound in 1980 for fallow, same in 2015, we used to give away and sell a little bit in them days, venison sold well to tourists in Lyndhurst out of John stranges mainly sausages, but as much as people want , it will never be the first meat of the masses even if you gave it away.
Selling direct is great if you only sell perhaps one a week, selling one a day, would not even keep the wolf from the door as a business.
It maybe great having orders for 3 deer at 300 each, take out disposal of skins, trimmings, overheads, tax etc and your labour , and you need to be doing this at least twice a week, unless you have other income.
Where as getting say 40 per head off a game dealer on average, shoot three in a morning, drop off deer, go to work, and enjoy your hobby, as when your hobby becomes your job it’s all up hill.

 

[kieran222]

Who says you have to eat it rare ?
Plenty recipes where simple minxe is well cooked and amazing
Mince n tatties
Spaghetti bolognaise

Then you have peri peri pulled vension pies etc
List goes on .... none of them near rare

You missed out slow cooked dishes. Yes, I have done them all and still do. But if you are having premium cuts, you won't be eating them anything more than medium or medium rare.

 

[kieran222]

can i ask .. and be honest ... how much time / effort have you put in to pushing / advertising trying to promote your venison ??
is it priced keenly enough to gather interest and not put folk off?
what demographic of folk you aiming for ? ( cheap and everyone or luxury high end consumer ?)

as said above markets there ... if not make one !

i spoke to quite a few who say they cant sell but when pushed discover they done next to bu55er all to promote or market it ...and expect folk to just walk in to their larder in droves


Paul

Out of curiosity, how many carcase, species do you sell processed?

 

[sauer]

99.9% roe ...odd red

Because of my main job being away for 3 or 4 weeks at s time its in fits and starts
Last time home was 5 in a week ...sometimes more sometimes none
Its sporadic
I could be doing with more permissionsn/ deer.
That is odd beast sold as skinned carcass for customers own butchery
Often I break em down and will be customers buying 2 or 3 packs off mince and same in burgers ...
I end up using a lot personally as well

I understand some folk dealing with far higher numbers ..
Even more reason to push or market it, if you don't have access to offload at a game dealer .

Paul