Bowsite.com

Meat Processors and Yield

Where do you take your deer for processing? Recommendations? Issues? How much do you get back? Do you bring it in whole, or cut it up yourself? What kind of things do you have made?

First it depends on where you live, I would start by calling the lockers some weigh your meat and process yours with everyone else's and just give you back the right weight but it's venison from a bunch of different deer. Doesnt matter to some people but I'm picky about it. Usually we get some summer sausage and the rest ground up with beef fat. Also its cheaper if you cut it up first and then bring it in.

Around here the average price for cutting and processing one deer is $225. For that reason, we do everything ourselves.

Other than this year, always cut up my own deer,,,, I do not make sausage though,,,, I like to bring in my sausage meat, to her, usually late Feb, she is less busy and takes care of my meat very well....... Quality Meats Cascade Wis,,,,,, my wife is the sausage eater, along with my daughter and friends,,,,, that I do not eat,,,,

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't cut up my own deer yet but I plan on doing it myself in the future. It's getting expensive and a little ridiculous. YouTube videos (Steven Rinella, Sean McVeigh) make the butchering process look fairly simple! I have always taken my deer in whole to just about every processor in FDL and Dodge county. I have summer sausage, wieners, brats and specialty sticks made. Usually no issues. However, I hate the idea of all my venison being mixed with other people's deer.. With that being said, this year was different. I actually found 2 bb's in my summer sausage from my September early season doe... Leroy's Meats...and Brandon Meats gave me 33 pounds of venison back from my gun doe. She weighed 126 pounds field dressed.. (their only response was "well, that's your deer..") hmmmmm

We bone the deer out ourselves and then take what we want for sausage to the butcher. I' couldn't tell you anything about yields.

If u care about not eating infected meat (CWD) u must do it urself. If take to plant as stated b4---they mix all the deer together (should b illegal) and u have no way of knowing if u receive back infected meat or not... If infected meat is a_ I don't care thing--- then any plant is just as good as the next. It's actually disgusting thinking about how those plants run their business... On top of that they charge well over what they should for the job...... minumum $150 in the area I'm in.

The normal yield on a whitetail deer is a bit less than 50% of the dressed weight. This will vary depending on the skill and care of the processor, the field dressing job, and how shot-up (bullet or slug damage) the carcass is.

Reducing a whitetail carcass to primal cuts to be wrapped and frozen is not that difficult and a minimum of tools are required for a basic job. There are plenty of references available and you can teach yourself how to do it.

To insure that you get the meat from the deer you shot, you must do it yourself. If you do not, you are taking the word of the processor. Many processors will be honest, others will not.

Correct. It's between $65 and $100 to drop your animal off and have it 100% ground, and they charge an extra $20 or more for the cape. Then the specialty meat adds up fast. $$$ I'm used to a hefty bill and I usually get back between 60 and 90 pounds.. this year though.. I don't know.

Always have done my own processing. I skin, cut, and trim. Wife does the weighing and vacuum sealing. Because I trim so close (fat, silver skin, blood clot) my yield is typically 40% of live weight. A saw will never touch my deer. The scraps are trimmed, although not as close, for sausage and I take it into Germantown House of Fine Sausage where it will hang in the smoker for 7 days. Sam does a fantastic job. I believe that a good, ongoing relationship with a processor will ensure that you will get your deer back, and not a mixture of others. Picked up 75lbs of sausage yesterday (scraps from 2 big deer).

"she is less busy and takes care of my meat very well"

GH, sorry this gave me a chuckle. We all have a immature teenage boy sense of humor once in a while.

I also do my own processing, I is not hard to do, just learn your cuts of meat. I am also picky about trimming, and no saw involved. I get about 50 to 60 percent yield. I also make my own burger, and breakfast sausage. I do have summer sausage, and sticks made at the processor but I wait until around the end of march or april to bring it in, better chance of getting my own meat back. I cant see paying that kind of money for a few hours work and then have your meat mixed with others. Like case said, very few tools needed. Sharp knives and a meat grinder is all I need.

Utah there are several ways to do it, all easy,,,, I am sure you do not live that far away, I would gladly show you, a few things, not to say what I do, is the best

Rut never thought of that,,, ha ha

Utah I have an excellent dvd from a butcher, who use to do, demonstrations at the Deer Classic,,,,, if you would like to have it, I will mail it to you, otherwise its going to get sold, at the big sportsmen sale, at the Cow Palace in March,,,,,

Great gesture groundhunter . You seem like a top shelf guy .

I’m sure RutnStrut has a few dvds you could have as well... hahahaha!

Find a local friend or neighbors and ask if you can observe them butcher. Doubt many would say no to a extra set of helping hands.

GojakesGo +1.... I remember being to young to hunt, but never to young to help dad with the butchering. Hands on helping is the way to learn. Of course we didnt have you tube in the sixties.

I believe it's much more rewarding when you cut up (debone) and process your deer. You can easily skin a deer and remove the flesh while hanging in under an hour. Grinding, cleaning, making jerky and sausage just completes the entire hunt. There are YouTube videos out there, and others you can buy. I promise anyone can do it. No harder than fileting a fish.

Spent the evening going through some venison that I found a pellet from a pellet gun in. I have a small hand held metal detector that I use on waterfowl. I only found 1 pellet, but it sure would have raised hell with the grinder, not to mention grinding the lead into hamburger or sausage. I wonder if a big time processor would even care about something like this. I have the Little Wizzard II.

Pete-pec - butchering a deeris easier than filleting a northern for me!

I second that... I struggle badly with fish. Deer I find easy if done while still warm anyways. I used to get so frustrated butchering deer (cold deer), now I've got them down to a simple process. I do it right where they drop (provided property owner allows leaving carcas) gutless method I can butcher and pack out much faster/easier than gutting and dragging. The girlfriend trims/grinds and packages, And luckily I've got a neighbor that's great at making cold smoke sausage which I much prefer over modern processing

Mike F... remind me to show you how to do a northern, I can do those easy, with my bubba knife, once you learn my trick

GH- I will! Thanks

We processed three deer ourselves this year as well. When I read 225.00 to process a deer I about fell out of my chair!!

We have had a lady that we know well process our deer a couple of times when time was short and she charged 40 dollars! That was cut and wrapped.

Too watch her work....I was a tad embarrassed - gosh she was good with a knife and quick to boot. Nice work she did.

There are a lot of places now closing, because of CWD,,,,, they may lose money, but in the long run, may not be worth it for them.... I can not remember the name of the place, but this year, they decided not to do any venison, and when they were on the radio, they said, it would cost them a lot of money....

it was a large processor somewhere in the fox valley or west of there, I can not remember.....

My butcher told me, it is a concern for her also, something she has been looking at , but has made no decision at this time,,,,, She has a large beef business,,,,, She said who knows......

My partner is concerned about CWD, wants every deer tested, me I do not care, not worried about it,,,,,,

GH- I will absolutely take you up on that. Thanks!

PM sent. Thanks for the advice everyone. I do believe it's probably quite rewarding doing the butchering yourself and I like the idea of taking the meat in well after the season closes.

One of my most prized pictures. Mom and Dad, my wife and kids. circa 1990?

Trapper, awesome! Would you agree that the meat yield is about 40-50% of field dressed weight?

One of your biggest factors in yield will be how picky you are cleaning your meat. The fat off of any cervid is what gives meat a bad taste. Luckily there is not a lot of fast on deer and it is accumulated in the same areas and easy to trim, ie hind quarters. This must be trimmed off. Where people will differ in opinions will be the muscle fascia and silver skin. Over the years I have been trimming less and less of the fascia. We trim the thick connective tissue at the end of the muscle that connects to the bone and eat the rest. I had less than 5 pounds of scrap off a 180 pound dressed deer this year. We have eaten plenty and noticed no difference in taste from when we used to trim anything that was white. One down side is that the fascia will accumulate on your grinder blades but it isn't hard to remove. We probably increased our yields by 20 pounds by doing this.

I trim mine pretty good. As stated, the gristle is where you get any game'y taste in wild game meat, and to some, it puts a bad taste in there mouth for any future eating of the meat. I get 40% when I'm done.

Great pic, Trapper! Good lessons can be learned from this. Meat doesn't magically appear at the super market!

I agree with 40% figure with it being a little +/- depending on just how good it is picked. Skin, cut, (and if I'm lucky will cape) my own deer and keep trimmings to be taken in to favorite butcher shop after season, whereas I know my batch will contain my deer. Best advice I can give for the overall general process is think ergonomics, good tools, and sharp knives. It'll take a while to get the system perfected to your liking. (There's a minimum size to ensure this, but not a problem.) I take good care of my deer from beginning to end and don't want another one that who knows what has happened with it.

I butcher all my deer. When I lived in SW Wi, I took my meat to a processor once and he said by law he had to mix 50% beef with the venison. What a crock and obviously I left with my venison. Didn't even want to know what exorbitant fees he was going to charge. I too trim out all the fat and silver skin. My back straps I cut into 1&1/2" thickness. When it comes to to fry, We beat them down (grain side up) with a wooden meat mallet. This real breaks the meat down and tenderizes it. I have a lot of inside straps from guys I know that want nothing to do with them. Nothing better in my book.

Register here to reply to this topic