Price of grouse off shoot

[Nickheref]

Just wondering what the game dealers are paying, a friend went out to dinner and it was the most expensive thing on the menu by some considerable distance, I don't begrudge restaurants making money at all but was pondering if it was the mark up of the game dealer or restaurant as I have seen some high prices on the internet for oven ready grouse but understood that they weren't making much this year. When I bought some last season they were about £6.50 each (not old birds and they had left the feet on so weren't woodies pretending to be grouse )

[trekmoor]

One of the estates in S. Scotland is giving many of the grouse shot this year to the beaters and pickers up rather than sell them to game dealers for a fraction of what the game dealers sell them on for. I was given grouse this year just to train my lab pup with !

Wullie

[Naj]

You'll likely be paying through the nose. Game should be as cheap as chips because its now just a by-product of the shooting industry with little monetary value due to over supply and relatively low consumer demand. Grouse might conceivably be worth more in a poor breeding season but not when there's a glut of birds. It's the middle men who bump up the price artificially because they Market game as a luxury product.

Naj

[Nickheref]

That is rather what I thought, we eat shedloads of game but it is all either "produced" by me or straight from the person who "harvested" it, so much so that my family dream of leg of lamb but get haunch of muntjac!!

[Plainsman]

Just wondering what the game dealers are paying, a friend went out to dinner and it was the most expensive thing on the menu by some considerable distance, I don't begrudge restaurants making money at all but was pondering if it was the mark up of the game dealer or restaurant as I have seen some high prices on the internet for oven ready grouse but understood that they weren't making much this year. When I bought some last season they were about £6.50 each (not old birds and they had left the feet on so weren't woodies pretending to be grouse )

It varies but most dealers are giving nothing for old grouse and a pound a brace for young grouse. Just wait till masses of pheasants and partridges come onto the market. Possibly the greatest threat to the industry?

[Naj]

I think it is. I've thought for a while that the way Driven shooting has developed is our Achilles heel and the glut of unmarketable birds that it produces makes for a glaring ethical hole in one of the main justifications for shooting them.

Naj

[shamykebab]

I dined in a city restaurant last week, grouse on the menu was priced at £23. Astonishing. If there was ever a disincentive for encouraging people to eat game...

[canismajor1]

Given that the price for shot game is going to be poor or non existent this year, would it not be feasible for dog food manufacturers to incorporate it into their product, rather than use chicken ?

[Stacia]

Given that the price for shot game is going to be poor or non existent this year, would it not be feasible for dog food manufacturers to incorporate it into their product, rather than use chicken ?

That is a good idea or find some way to feed the people who are hard up. It seems wrong to shoot them for sport and not use them for the food they would provide.

[Naj]

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