flynny Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 (edited) do you apply this to shepherds , beef farmers poultry farmers etc . all raise animals for the food chain and yes they are killed in a different way and the above is put into the food chain, not raised and shot for the thrill of the shot/bag numbers, i love my sport guys but never have and never will do a driven day, I'll shoot driven clays if I want sport/ multiple shots, pest controll and stalking are totally different from releasing birds just to be shot, and then possibly not put into the food chain, and here in lies the problem just my opinion, flynny Edited January 16, 2018 by flynny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnfromUK Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 On the subject of 'being open' about shooting, I have (prior to retirement) organised clays shoots for work colleagues to give them a small understanding of shooting. I can honestly say that everyone has enjoyed it. I have also taken a few friends on 'watch and learn' (non shooting) days on the game shoot. I think these are both useful, and certainly I and a couple of other shooting/fieldsports colleagues were quite open about our sport and never received any bad reactions. On the subject of game sales/disposal, the (very small) shoot I belong to sometimes has a small surplus, and sometimes there is barely enough to go round all present. When there is a surplus, I have a few neighbours who like a brace now and again ..... For me, living on my own, although I enjoy eating game, I can't use a lot of it - especially since as I have got older, too much game (or seafood, liver, some fish and a few other things) triggers gout. To have game more than about once a fortnight triggers trouble in the form of gout attack (which is very painful and puts paid to any fieldsports for the duration). Not everyone can eat a lot of game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotslad Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 I have been 1 of the few laying a lot of the blame at the game farmers door. But how would farmers feel if slaughter houses/butchers were buying there beef/lamb/chicken and selling it at stupidly inflated prices so crashing the market, so there is very little demand then the wholesale price drops but retailers still carry on selling the meat at the same vastly inflated prices. The retail price of game has hardly changed over the years despite the rate dealers pay falling from £4 a brace to costing 20p a bird to lift them. I love eating game but I wouldn't pay retail prices for it, the price has to drop to punters plus a bit of a marketing campign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB1 Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 On 16/01/2018 at 13:35, scutt said: you said we don't give a ******** about the birds we shoot and kill .Sorry mate but I put a lot of work and evert to keep these birds in good nick before they are killed . I'm sure you do mate, but I think you've read my statement wrong…… I'm pointing out that ultimately we kill Pheasant for sport/pleasure, and theres no milage in dressing it up as anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scutt Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 12 minutes ago, KB1 said: I'm sure you do mate, but I think you've read my statement wrong…… I'm pointing out that ultimately we kill Pheasant for sport/pleasure, and theres no milage in dressing it up as anything else. Sorry read my post I don't say birds are shot for the food chain at all I only suggest that it would be a good thing to use as many birds in as many ways as we can both for humans and maybe a market for animal feed. We kill not just pheasants for sport/pleasure but in almost all hunting the enjoyment is a major factor or we would not hunt at all as we would just shop for our meat. Pest control is a job can't see many doing this if they didn't like it. I will say this again killing one animal is one to many for the anti shooting/hunting brigade . only my thoughts on this and respect your way of thinking but please don't think I am less honest about what I do than you are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The gouse Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 17 hours ago, scotslad said: I have been 1 of the few laying a lot of the blame at the game farmers door. But how would farmers feel if slaughter houses/butchers were buying there beef/lamb/chicken and selling it at stupidly inflated prices so crashing the market, so there is very little demand then the wholesale price drops but retailers still carry on selling the meat at the same vastly inflated prices. The retail price of game has hardly changed over the years despite the rate dealers pay falling from £4 a brace to costing 20p a bird to lift them. I love eating game but I wouldn't pay retail prices for it, the price has to drop to punters plus a bit of a marketing campign. £2kg the farmer is getting for a good beef animal at the min. The butcher/wholesaler is the one that makes the money with there prices which as been the case for years this is why a lot of farmers slaughter and market there animals now. there is a butcher down the road from me that sells a brace of pheasant for £12 sirloin £23.60 and also as the check to sell pigeons at £4.50 each. i think the big shoots need to start dressing there birds and marketing themselves my daughter is a head chef in a big pub chain and she would put game on the menu if she could get dressed game at the right price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnfromUK Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 11 minutes ago, The gouse said: ... if she could get dressed game at the right price. Some years ago I co-ran quite a large shoot. We used to sell most of our game to a large game dealer, who had a 'round' with a refrigerated lorry and collected from several larger shoots including some very locally to me. In the peak of the season they must have collected thousands of brace a week. Early in the season we could get a decent price, but later the price dropped away to sometimes 50 pence a brace. The rules are now quite tight on refrigeration (I'm no longer up to date on the rules) and handling of game (as all food produce) - and that may put smaller shoots off from getting involved in selling to a game dealer as refrigerated storage was expensive to buy and run, especially so for a short season. The game dealers tried whole lot of different ways to sell the game. Export (mainly Germany I believe) was quite a big market then, and some were dressed, but the cost of dressing was always considerable and the 'reject rate' for supermarkets was very high because the buyers didn't want to buy game with any sign of shot. I also understand that the dressing was (at least then) not well suited to the mechanical/automated plucking that worked for chickens. Not sure why this should be? Basically the cost of dressing was greatly higher than chickens. I know that the butchers/supermarkets get blamed for making high margins, but I do think that the costs are quite high and not easy to bring down by mechanical assistance - especially for a product that only has a short season (pheasants are in surplus for about 3 months really). Interestingly I saw recently an advert on TV for Gressingham duck. That has been advertised quite hard, is available the full 12 months, but is still a very 'niche' market rather than a volume seller - even though most supermarkets seem to stock it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The gouse Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 The farmer makes is profit selling is beef, lamb, chickens, turkey, duck?? the big game shoots make there profit from selling hi profile shooting at a big cost. Are they interested in the sale of there birds?? They have got to start marketing there birds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB1 Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 4 hours ago, scutt said: Sorry read my post I don't say birds are shot for the food chain at all I only suggest that it would be a good thing to use as many birds in as many ways as we can both for humans and maybe a market for animal feed. We kill not just pheasants for sport/pleasure but in almost all hunting the enjoyment is a major factor or we would not hunt at all as we would just shop for our meat. Pest control is a job can't see many doing this if they didn't like it. I will say this again killing one animal is one to many for the anti shooting/hunting brigade . only my thoughts on this and respect your way of thinking but please don't think I am less honest about what I do than you are. Never even suggested for one second that you were sir…... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GingerCat Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 I posted earlier that I got oven ready birds for a whole shiny pound each from keeper. This is what it cost him to have a dealer prepare them. It doesn' get cheaper than that. Quite how a local butcher charges £7.50 a brace for the same thing I dont know. If I had a bigger freezer I'd buy so more before the season ends. Maybe a push by a celebrity chef or 2 would change things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The gouse Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 If pheasants where farmed liked chicken would there be a market??? I would say all day long. The problem is people eat with their eyes with game shot birds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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