Venison Shortage reported by major gamedealers.

[Sheamus]

I tell you what some folk don't half write some nonsense on here..
If some of the UK main game dealers have a shortage of venison going through there doors?
It can only be a good thing.
It keeps prices and payments high for the guys who are actually turning over a fair few carcasses every week.
Weather,shooting seasons, technology and general disturbance all play a significant part in wildlife management.
Its down to the individual stalker to overcome these obstacles. To make a difference in numbers of the herd species.

 

[long_range_rob]

irrespective of carcass value, the deer are not showing so much in legal hours this year. High amount of acorns holding them deep in the woods and it feels like it has not stopped raining in months so there normal places are waterlogged.

This is my personal thoughts. The use of digital scopes is pushing the deer to come out later and later. We have noticed a change in the deer movement pattern over the past few years.

I have cameras out and even places not heavily shot the deer are coming out later and going back into cover before light.

Is it the use of digital scopes? The weather ? Or in some places more foot fall of general public walking footpaths? Something is changing the movements.

Probably a combination of all of the above. Plus evolution as those that come out later don’t get shot and therefore reproduce and educate their young not to come out in daylight and stand broadside to stalkers.

 

[r judd]

If it was £4 a kg they wouldnt have a shortage

 

[VSS]

If it was £4 a kg they wouldnt have a shortage

If they were all head shot and cleanly presented then £4/kg would be realistic.
If not, not.

(I pay £4/kg when I buy in carcasses that are up to that spec. If they're not, I don't want them).

 

[Sheamus]

If it was £4 a kg they wouldnt have a shortage

Id lap that price up all day long
But just imagine the price per kilo for the end consumer.
I'm not sure if it would be a good thing for the venison market.?

 

[Hambone]

Fair enough but how much do you pay for a shoulder shot and damaged front end carcass when most of the weight/value is in the straps and haunches?

 

[Hambone]

f they were all head shot and cleanly presented then £4/kg would be realistic.
If not, not.

Fair enough but how much do you pay for a shoulder shot and damaged front end carcass when most of the weight/value is in the straps and haunches?
Got there in the end

 

[Klenchblaize]

If head shot venison is the way forward in terms of securing Game Dealer acceptance of carcasses I would respectfully suggest DMQ and indeed the BDS need urgently to review the DSCL1 and DSCL2 shooting test.

K

 

[VSS]

Fair enough but how much do you pay for a shoulder shot and damaged front end carcass when most of the weight/value is in the straps and haunches?
Got there in the end

Nothing.
I don't want them.

 

[User00056]

I agree with this and glad I’m not making it up in my head!

Yep, me too! We've had eight inches of rain over January, which is keeping the deer in deep cover. They're still there, they're just not showing at the usual times. We had a respite the night before last, and I counted 18 roe in one 20 acre field directly behind my house. 18!

 

[Hambone]

Fair enough but how much do you pay for a shoulder shot and damaged front end carcass when most of the weight/value is in the straps and haunches?

Nothing.
I don't want them.

OK that is your choice bot it seems to me to be a bit simplistic to say they are not usable or unsaleable when there are RAW dogfood outlets for meat that is not fit for the human food chain and also the undamaged neck meat. Do game dealers think that the bog standard deer shooter is ignorant of simple biology?

 

[Sakoodin1]

most gamedealers are worse than the government fir ripping the working man off!! Give you **** all for your head shot deer but charge you a fortune to buy it in a shop! Pheasant sales are a prime example? You have to pay 50p a bird to get them to take them but they sell them for £7:50 each in the shops! You just get shafted

 

[Stephenbuck2489]

Whilst this is from a few years back (2019), it sets the commercial side squarely in context. It's the reason why Mike set up the FSA-approved facility at Owl Barn Larder - I shot that syndicate for 3 years. With the onset of COVID, this was the genus of Deerbox.

Extract:

"You've got to think about it as a whole carcass," Robinson explains, ahead of portioning up our roe buck for the Woodsman. "If you bought a saddle of venison on the bone, you would pay £18 to £20 a kilo for it. Same as côte de boeuf. Buy it boned and its £24 a kilo. You buy a saddle of fallow deer that weighs 3kg, that will be at least £50. If you just took the meat from that, it would cost you £8 per portion. But, if you buy a whole, 30kg carcass from me at £7.50 a kilo, that will cost you £200. From that you will get 50 prime portions and 15 non-prime portions to make burgers or ragù with. At London prices you're talking £1,800 from a fallow deer carcass that cost you £200. Your average perportion cost is less than £3 – it's a no-brainer."

what a read. thanks for that.Really shows the context of what we have to offer! and with just a bit of knowledge and kit what you can achieve from a carcass if you have A, a market, and B the patience, skill and time

 

[Brittany boy]

Maybe watch Neil Rowantree clip on night shooting, the number in his team, including the dog , animal welfare Health n Safety etc, I can just imagine the number of wounded deer or those that aren’t recovered littering the countryside for the anti’s to complain about. No doubt someone will run another course on how to do it properly and make a fortune.

I dont understand why we cant night shoot?
I cant see a logical reason

 

[shakey jake]

Maybe watch Neil Rowantree clip on night shooting, the number in his team, including the dog , animal welfare Health n Safety etc, I can just imagine the number of wounded deer or those that aren’t recovered littering the countryside for the anti’s to complain about. No doubt someone will run another course on how to do it properly and make a fortune.

Why are you more likely to wound at night?
Cant see why it would be any harder than shooting foxes

 

[VSS]

OK that is your choice bot it seems to me to be a bit simplistic to say they are not usable or unsaleable when there are RAW dogfood outlets for meat that is not fit for the human food chain and also the undamaged neck meat. Do game dealers think that the bog standard deer shooter is ignorant of simple biology?

About 25-30% of the retail value of a carcass is in the neck, shoulders and chest.

If there's any damage, the game dealer / butcher has the labour cost of trimming and tidying it up. If it's badly damaged, it's not worth the effort, so the whole front end will go in the bin.
Why should they pay the stalker a premium price for something that's going in the bin? Answer: they don't. That's why the price is so low. It's to allow for the wastage.
And then there's the added fact that waste disposal needs to be paid for, along with business rates, staffing costs, etc.

As for the pet food market, I suggest you read up on the guidelines for the production and manufacture of pet foods. It's not as simple as diverting unfit meat from the human food chain to the pet food market.

most gamedealers are worse than the government fir ripping the working man off!! Give you **** all for your head shot deer but charge you a fortune to buy it in a shop! Pheasant sales are a prime example? You have to pay 50p a bird to get them to take them but they sell them for £7:50 each in the shops! You just get shafted

If they were to only take head shot deer then the price would be higher, but stalkers expect game dealers to take their rubbish as well. Who's shafting who here?
And when a game dealer does offer higher prices for head shot deer all the (less competent) stalkers moan that they're encouraging unethical shooting.

 

[Brittany boy]

Foxes aren’t as tough as a deer when hit with a centre fire, recent thread on here about how tough a roe deer can be. Finding a heart lung shot deer in daylight can be hard enough without a dog never mind doing it at night. Unless your intimate with your ground backstops could also be an issue. The issue isn’t just wounding its the recovery.

 

[Hambone]

About 25-30% of the retail value of a carcass is in the neck, shoulders and chest.

If there's any damage, the game dealer / butcher has the labour cost of trimming and tidying it up. If it's badly damaged, it's not worth the effort, so the whole front end will go in the bin.
Why should they pay the stalker a premium price for something that's going in the bin? Answer: they don't. That's why the price is so low. It's to allow for the wastage.
And then there's the added fact that waste disposal needs to be paid for, along with business rates, staffing costs, etc.

As for the pet food market, I suggest you read up on the guidelines for the production and manufacture of pet foods. It's not as simple as diverting unfit meat from the human food chain to the pet food market.


If they were to only take head shot deer then the price would be higher, but stalkers expect game dealers to take their rubbish as well. Who's shafting who here?
And when a game dealer does offer higher prices for head shot deer all the (less competent) stalkers moan that they're encouraging unethical shooting.

I can accept that for the premium price! Its the lack of a reduced one I don't get.

 

[Chris Richardson]

About 25-30% of the retail value of a carcass is in the neck, shoulders and chest.

If there's any damage, the game dealer / butcher has the labour cost of trimming and tidying it up. If it's badly damaged, it's not worth the effort, so the whole front end will go in the bin.
Why should they pay the stalker a premium price for something that's going in the bin? Answer: they don't. That's why the price is so low. It's to allow for the wastage.
And then there's the added fact that waste disposal needs to be paid for, along with business rates, staffing costs, etc.

As for the pet food market, I suggest you read up on the guidelines for the production and manufacture of pet foods. It's not as simple as diverting unfit meat from the human food chain to the pet food market.


If they were to only take head shot deer then the price would be higher, but stalkers expect game dealers to take their rubbish as well. Who's shafting who here?
And when a game dealer does offer higher prices for head shot deer all the (less competent) stalkers moan that they're encouraging unethical shooting.

Out of interest Tim do you have to pay extra for disposing of lead shot waste as “ hazardous waste “ as opposed to copper shot venison as the OP suggests is true ?

 

[VSS]

Out of interest Tim do you have to pay extra for disposing of lead shot waste as “ hazardous waste “ as opposed to copper shot venison as the OP suggests is true ?

No. I've never come across anything like that. But as a small-scale producer there are disposal options available to me that an AGHE wouldn't be able to exploit.

I've got a hunch that the lead content might affect uptake of the pet food option though.