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Cost of processing
- Thread starter Baroque Brass
- Start date
I love me some deer burgers. May do sone this weekend. If my wife will let me.
I agree. I think skin on would be the way if I was hanging them to age. Keep them from drying out and getting crusty.
I will say this-if I was going to process deer for money, I wouldn't do one for $100. Not if they want it done right.
Raylander
I’m Billy’s Useles Uncle.
There are not any processors around me that I am aware of. , I’ve never had one processed..
I can’t see how they stay in business. No way I’d cut up a deer for what y’all are sayin it costs
I can’t see how they stay in business. No way I’d cut up a deer for what y’all are sayin it costs
mizzippi jb
Welcome back.
Work 2-3 months a year, hire Meth heads, and make 20k maybe? Naw.....
Core Lokt
Senior Member
Not another one of these threads....
Skin on is the way to do it ( or the way we do it) as you say to keep from drying out. It is a bugger skinning one thought that has hung a week and hair gets everywhere.
Crakajak
Daily Driveler News Team
That's the holy grail of sausage seasoning
I bet. Probably stuck like glue, too.Not another one of these threads....
Skin on is the way to do it ( or the way we do it) as you say to keep from drying out. It is a bugger skinning one thought that has hung a week and hair gets everywhere.
Crakajak
Daily Driveler News Team
Academy always puts a grinder and assesseries on sale after Christmas.I bought mine for 99.99 that was regular price of 299.00 because someone priced it wrong
I believe last time I checked sausage was about 5/pound.
That was on top of the regular cut on a whole deer.
I don't know what the price would be if you just brought in a cooler of meat but I would bet there would be a fee plus the 5/pound of finished product.
So if you got 30lbs at 5/lb that's 150.
I did about 15 lbs a while back of pork, it is time consuming and I was lazy, just bought a boneless butt and a loin and cubed it, mixed it and ground it and vacuum sealed it. Took a while.
That was on top of the regular cut on a whole deer.
I don't know what the price would be if you just brought in a cooler of meat but I would bet there would be a fee plus the 5/pound of finished product.
So if you got 30lbs at 5/lb that's 150.
I did about 15 lbs a while back of pork, it is time consuming and I was lazy, just bought a boneless butt and a loin and cubed it, mixed it and ground it and vacuum sealed it. Took a while.
Kev
Senior Member
Everyone I know that uses a processor either hasn’t learned to do their own, doesn’t have time, or is just lazy. There’s nothing wrong with being lazy sometimes. Heck, I use to be lazy every once in a while until I learned there is Not a processor worth a dime within 50 miles.
Core Lokt
Senior Member
We processed for the public (I said this on the last processing thread) and it wasn't nowhere near prices y'all are saying but then again, it's been 8+ years ago.
With that said we have done our own for 25 yrs. It's like anything else. Once you get it down it really doesn't take that much to do a deer. The beer is good too doing so. Time depends on what you are producing. Burger and cube are the quickest. Sausage adds a little time if linking it and snack sticks or small breakfast links longer if you use casings. You can do them using a jerky gun and no casings, snack sticks that is.
My thing is if you don't want to or don't know how to do your own you will pay what you pay. Deal with it or quit hunting.
With that said we have done our own for 25 yrs. It's like anything else. Once you get it down it really doesn't take that much to do a deer. The beer is good too doing so. Time depends on what you are producing. Burger and cube are the quickest. Sausage adds a little time if linking it and snack sticks or small breakfast links longer if you use casings. You can do them using a jerky gun and no casings, snack sticks that is.
My thing is if you don't want to or don't know how to do your own you will pay what you pay. Deal with it or quit hunting.
Don't expect the cost to come down. the guys that are doing it now are grandfathered in, anyone new has to go through a lot of trouble just to get one started. The days of building a cooler and starting a business have ended. By the time you put in the commercial septic system, satisfy the health and Ag departments, and get all equipment up and running, you might as well forget about deer and do domestic livestock. Deer are not very lucrative at this point.
As the old timers close shop, the $75-90 processing fees will as well. Id be willing to bet that in 2025 the average cost of a basic cut will be at least $150, then add gut fees, bacon, or fat.
Power, water, disposal fees, and any material have gone up significantly. All that money everyone got during covid was nice, but we are paying for it exponentially now.
I'm still shuffling through the new regulations. There the same as the old, except deer used to be exempt.
As the old timers close shop, the $75-90 processing fees will as well. Id be willing to bet that in 2025 the average cost of a basic cut will be at least $150, then add gut fees, bacon, or fat.
Power, water, disposal fees, and any material have gone up significantly. All that money everyone got during covid was nice, but we are paying for it exponentially now.
I'm still shuffling through the new regulations. There the same as the old, except deer used to be exempt.
buckpasser
Senior Member
My guy has a great setup and told me he did 5100 deer last season. Looks like he may top that this year. I think that puts him grossing around a million dollars. Not sure what he nets, but he has around 15-20 employees back there working this time of year. He’s been in business for a long time.
I've been running numbers based on a $100 basic cut. I relize that there are gut and cape and sausage, etc fees. But in budgeting, I look at the lowest cost of goods sold.
2 men should be able to do 750 - 1000 deer a year. The key is to have all your bow season deer done and the cooler ready to accept gun deer as soon as season opens. Cut all day and night for about 5 weeks, and then things slow down a little.
That's $100,000 minus power, water, equipment repair or replace, and that's if you had everything when you started.
So maybe 2 people make $45k a piece. Not bad for 4 months of work. But thats 4 months you live in a deer cooler. Kid has a soccer game, too bad. You have to take in and cut deer that day.
I can build an indoor 12x20 cooler that will maintain 36-38* for about $3500-$4000 not including a rail system.
It takes 12 chest freezers to equal the power consumption of a 5x6 walk in freezer. Either way you are looking at about $7k in freezer space.
All of that gets you 60-75 deer hanging at one time.
Another $2k to finish out a room for cutting.(cold and clean)
Another $3k in equipment
$3k for electrical, if you have a buddy
Same for plumbing but under the same condition.
This is based on an interior build out of already in place structure.
Now take the new regulations and double or triple all those costs as well as the added cost of restaurant infrastructure, that depending on your land could be 20k could be $100k.
Now you have made AG and health happy, but you still have to satisfy the building code officials. That kicks in handi-cap code, parking code, tree code, site development code, energy code. Anyone in commercial construction should be able to attest to that.
Now you could have a half million dollars in a facility that will take you a decade to pay for. Its no longer a business that someone can start in their barn and grow. You have to come out of the gate a Rockefeller and charge lawyer fees to cut deer.
I read that some of the idea behind all this is to get more farm raised deer to be sold to public. Now go and look at how that impacts an area with CWD.
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buckpasser
Senior Member
Have you heard of Brooks county GA? We don’t have laws here! Lol
Sounds like it would be tough. I don’t want none.
Core Lokt
Senior Member
We weren't inspected at all. Didn't have to be if all we did was deer, back then. Just had a clean processing place where we would do our own and that was good enough for our customers.
That's what it should be now. Free market only happens with less regulation. The bad go out of business, the good thrive. Everything in between was up to the game warden.
The next quota hunt near Greene co, we should all pile our deer up on the health departments lawn and then ask what they expect us to do with them.
All codes are written so that the municipality governing that area has final say through their inspectors, regardless of what the code says. A federal code may meet a need in North Dakota, but could be asinine in Georgia. The inspector has the right to use common sense in that instance. If something could prove to the municipality that there is a huge need and common sense has to come into play, then we may see counties ignoring some of the federal regulation that makes no sense. I think we would still see the underground infrastructure, but parking, handy-cap accessibility, and random AG inspections could go out the window.
Dutch
AMERICAN WARRIOR
Last time I paid to have a deer processed it was $35. And I got shorted on the meat. This was at a place on 247 in Kathleen Ga.
Only reason I used them then was I shot a buck right at dark in Crawford County, and I had a qouta hunt at Piedmont starting the next morning.
So being lazy cost me. Lesson learned. I haven't stepped foot near a processor since '98. Even last year after shoulder surgery the wife and I processed 2 deer given to me by a friend from work.
Besides I enjoy doing it. But to each his own.
Only reason I used them then was I shot a buck right at dark in Crawford County, and I had a qouta hunt at Piedmont starting the next morning.
So being lazy cost me. Lesson learned. I haven't stepped foot near a processor since '98. Even last year after shoulder surgery the wife and I processed 2 deer given to me by a friend from work.
Besides I enjoy doing it. But to each his own.
