Price of grouse off shoot

[Nickheref]

Well it is an ill wind etc, I have just spoken to a friend I am going to stay with in a month and should be coming back with plenty of grouse but I do agree it is a real problem that people won't eat it. Most of the restaurants around me sell a lot of pheasant in the winter and do charge a realistic price, given the popularity of cooking competitions I did think of contacting channel four and suggesting they did a cooking show where you had to use game for the main course but my wife talked me out of it.

[Col]

It is wrong.

I doubt pet food manufacturers would be interested because of contamination, shot damage, lead etc. By-products from the human food chain that have passed health/hygiene and abattoir standards and are easily sourced, must be a more viable option I'd have thought.

Naj

Exactly right re the lead and hygiene stuff. If the products provenance can't be completely traced then it can't be used. Pet food production follows exactly the same health and hygiene rules as human food, as well as some extra ones from the vetinary industry.

The point about feeding the needy is a great idea. There is a company toward the south of England doing just that but for the life of my I can't think what they are called.

IMHO, big bag shooting will be the end of the shooting sports in the U.K. It is highly indefensible when more birds are shot than can be entered into the food chain. The big commercial shoots need to get there heads around this and find an outlet or their days will be numbered and they may well drag the rest of the "normal" shoots down with them.

[trekmoor]

I can at present get grouse or pheasant from a south Scotland shoot for nothing. That shoot is now giving away grouse and pheasant that have been filleted then placed in trays then pressure wrapped and frozen ! The game dealers will not pay enough so the shoot owners decided to just give the birds away to beaters, pickers up etc. rather than get ripped off by the game dealers.
I have placed an order for some this weekend !

Wullie

[stiffsteve]

Game dealers up here are charging 30p/bird to take them away!

I have been giving vac packed Pheasant and Duck breasts away, for folk to try. No one has yet asked where they could buy some birds from.


Steve.

[Stacia]

Pheasants here are about £6 each. Wish someone would vacuum pack pheasant and duck breasts to give to me, I love game and sea food.

[Nickheref]

Pheasants here are about £6 each. Wish someone would vacuum pack pheasant and duck breasts to give to me, I love game and sea food.

Is that dressed? They are about £2.50 here dressed and £1 a brace at the butchers in the feather or come and collect off the shoots for nothing I am told and I am not far from you.

[Stacia]

Yes, they are dressed! £2.50 sounds great. I could probably get one free 'in the feather' but confess to not wanting to dress it. When I went rough shooting (I worked my dogs for 3 guns many years ago) I could take the birds to the local poulterer, but all that is long gone now.

I wondered if you were fairly close - the heref made me wonder?

[Nickheref]

Yes, they are dressed! £2.50 sounds great. I could probably get one free 'in the feather' but confess to not wanting to dress it. When I went rough shooting (I worked my dogs for 3 guns many years ago) I could take the birds to the local poulterer, but all that is long gone now.

I wondered if you were fairly close - the heref made me wonder?

Sunny, well it is today, north Herefordshire, south Shropshire/Welsh border 5 minutes drive .

[Stacia]

Moi, west Worcestershire.

[trekmoor]

I've just finished giving 4 grouse, all filleted and ready for the oven to my dogs ! That is a rather sad end for a grouse but it's better than giving them to a game dealer who then makes a big profit when selling them on.

They tasted very nice but I couldn't eat them all.

Wullie