The Venison Meat Market

What can be done to expand the market for deer ranchers meat?

Should the captive deer industry be exempt from Lacy Act restrictions on the sale of farm raised venison.

How would a solid meat market effect our breeder market and producers?

Would expanding the industries venison meat market facilitate more awareness publicly of deer ranching and hunting?

Is this something the deer industry should pursue?

We would have a hard time raising whitetail deer for meat prices as they are.  Deer have to be a few years old to produce body mass.  Things against this are deer don't put on good body meat weight till two or three years and in most cases production costs would eat up the amount paid by the meat industry.  I might be wrong here but I believe they are paying 4.00 a pound hanging weight.  Culls are what producers can afford to place in the meat industry just to get rid of the animal and get some return even if it is at a loss.


The only market that will keep this industry going is the hunting slaughter of our trophy deer.  Being from Montana where we are not allowed to harvest any animals with hunting harvesting facilities our deer and elk industry has failed to prosper.  From 160 game farms in 2000 we are at about 10 farms left in Montana.  Very few of Montana game farms can say they are doing well. That just shows what will happen to the industry when they lose the ability to harvest the animal by hunter harvest.  With so many States now closing their boarders game farmers like me are not able to utilize their animals to harvest facilities and can't produce an income for the family farm.  I'm sure our critics and the DNR knew this and are now pursuing this method of closing down the industry wherever they can.

Venison on the shelf in the supermarket will bring the price paid per pound way up.

Bell,


That is what this industry needs price way up.  I guess we would have to go to city folks to build that market.


I have tried to sell whitetail directly to the public and can't get more than 5 buck a pound.  I assume that is because every one and their dog can get a wild deer here in Montana.

Find out who the genius is that got the buffalo meat  marketed like they have and hire them to do the same for whitetails. We couldn't raise enough if that happened.

Not good news for the American meat market I got this off the elk forum.


Red deer prices are at a low with hinds at 2.00 a pound and stags at 2.25 a pound which it state are 40 percent less than what meat prices are in the U.S.  Americans can't compete with prices like that because the production cost are way more than that..  I'm sure it sell for much more in the retail market but again deer don't produce the quantity of meat a red deer does.

Shouldn't we consider pursuing the removal of our privately owned deer herds from under the umbrella of the Lacey Act.? Is this something that could be changed at a federal level? There is a growing trend towards deer meat.
https://munchies.vice.com/articles/britain-is-eating-more-deer-and-than-ever
http://huntergreen.org/original-short-films/the-original-red-meat/

Changing the law or not, selling whitetail venison for meat is a tough market. Hard to compete with red deer who are larger and easy to raise.

I believe this would be important to the perception of our industry as a whole. An outlet for our cull doe and bucks would be great. Even if it were a just a terminal market where we broke even. Profit could be made with our premium stock. IMO. Selling deer meat would facilitate positive PR for our industry. The "buck fever" narrative doesn't work with an industry that is selling meat.

There "may" be an opportunity for marketing venison. I was surprised to discover that among the top-five most-viewed articles on the Deerfarmer.org are "Tips for Cooking Venison" and "Venison Suppliers and Vendors".


 


Russell

If we were to feed our deer certified organic and gmo free grain and hay, our controlled deer's meat would be much more organic than that from an uncontrolled deer. Do we even know what kind of contaminated water source the uncontrolled deer may be drinking. Chuckles

Bell1030051434508647



If we were to feed our deer certified organic and gmo free grain and hay, our controlled deer's meat would be much more organic than that from an uncontrolled deer. Do we even know what kind of contaminated water source the uncontrolled deer may be drinking. Chuckles




Yes and let word get out that the CWD prion is in any way able to be passed on to people and our so called deer that are infecting all the wild deer will be the only true clean deer that come from tested farms.  Now how would that grab some *****?

A few weeks ago I wandered through a large-chain pet store. I was amazed at a huge section selling "natural" dog food, i.e., mostly frozen raw meat. I guess if I was exploring markets for venison, I would research selling the prime cuts to local restaurant chefs, and the rest of the meat, bones, etc. as natural organic dog food.


 


For some ideas, information and suggestions, see the articles in the Venison section of the Deerfarmer Library at http://www.deerfarmer.org/index.php/library/articles


 


Russell

Indiana deer farmers need to be informed if we are allowed to sell our deer meat in the supermarket when it is butchered & packaged by a USDA certified facility. We are going to try to educate ourselves and Indiana's deer farmers more on this opportunity. Why have industry leaders not led on this issue? I see a great business opportunity! United Cervid Farmers of Indiana will have a guest speaker at our next meeting who will explain the details to everyone.

This bit of business news got my attention. Next week, Blue Buffalo Pet Products Inc. is going public on the NASDAQ. They produce and sell "natural" pet food and other related products. What I found amazing is that their current sales are over $1 BILLION!


 


Obviously the natural pet foods market is doing very well! And what is more natural than farm-raised, tested and safe deer meat? I would think that somewhere here lies an opportunity for deer farmers to generate some revenues and get rid of surplus does and sub-standard bucks. 


 


You can find out more about Blue Buffalo at http://www.bluebuffalo.com


 


Russell