# Deer processing



## ScotG

With deer season being over here in Michigan my wife and I are thinking of doing deer processing for next year. has anyone done this as a business? If so would you have any suggestions for us? Worse case I end up with a nice place to process my own stuff .

Scot


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## clovis

I think it is a wonderful idea!!!!

I would strongly suggest shopping auctions for used equipment. This stuff usually sells for a fraction of what it would cost new.

At least you have some time to advertise and get your business set up before next season.

Clove


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## ScotG

Most people in Michigan just debone rather than saw cut, due to chronic wasting disease. I have a fair to good knowledge of cutting, my brother in law custom kills beef and hogs and i just finished 10 deer for a friend of mine and I. We do jerky, salami, snack sticks and breakfast sausage from deer for ourselves. Just wondering how people have made out in numbers per year, of course all areas are different, and any problems I havent thought of. The auction idea is a great one for the odds and ends that add up. I figure if I can cut 10 for us I may as well try and make some money at it too lol.


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## Riverdale

Scott, I am just west of Alma, and there are 3 deer processors with 5 miles of my house, with prices ranging between $30-50 plus the hide.
Hope that helps.


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## ScotG

Thank you...it always help to know what other areas are charging. Around me they get around $70 for just the processing, plus extra for salami or anything else you want. Can be an expensive bill if you like the jerky and snack sticks...all the good stuff costs extra lol.


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## coup

how big is your cooler? what does the state require of you?


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## Charleen

Your county's cooperative extension office and your state's Dept of Ag & Markets should be able to provide the regulations that you'd have to follow. Good luck! http://www.michigan.gov/mda


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## Oldcountryboy

ScotG, my wife and I done it for a few short years. It's a good money maker if your set up right. Number 1 thing is you must have cooler and freezer room, especially if theres no one else doing deer within a hours drive from you. The first year I was surprized of the amount of deer brought to me. Luckily the building I was renting had a big walk in cooler. It didn't have a freezer so we ended up buying 2 chest freezers the first year and added another one the second year. We would get up to 20 deer a day on weekends during the blackpowder and conventional rifle season. 

The first year we opened on 1st day of muzzle loading season and we got in about 70 deer in that one week. A month later rifle season opened and we got another 80 - 85 deer. The next year we got in about 200 deer during the two seasons plus a small number of bow kills, but we had about another 30 customers who brought up meat to be grind up, or maybe someone gave them a shoulder and wanted it cut up, or wanted some sausage made out of their own cubed up meat, etc. 

At that time we was charging $60 per deer. Most places we called up and checked their prices was running anywhere from $50 to $70 per deer. One big problem I had with charging this price was that I got to noticing that I was mostly getting in big bucks. Several hunters told me that they had killed small bucks and does but cut them up theirselves since they weren't very big. Then there was times I felt guilty charging $60 to someone who brought in a small 40 to 50 pound deer when other hunters were being charged the very same price to have a 150 pound deer processed. The last year that we processed I started charging by the pound instead of the deer and by doing that I was able to attract more of the doe and yearling harvest. I would say that the average weight of deer brought into me was around 100 pounds. So a 100 pound deer would still cost the customer $60, smaller deer would be a bit cheaper, and large deer would cost a bit more to process. I felt this was fair to all customers. 

Other money makers were making sausages and jerky for people and caping out a deer head for the trophy hunter which I got a lot of. At that time I was charging $1 per pound for breakfast sausage, $1.50 per pound for summer sausage, polish sausage, and hot links, and $2. per pound for Jerky. Also and extra $25 per cape out, which just basically consisted cutting the hide around the chest area and skinning it down to the head. Then cut the neck in two leaving 2'' of neck attached to the head for the taxidermy to measure from and freezing it till the taxidermist came after it. 

It was a lot of work but in 3 months time we would stick about nine to ten thousand dollars in our checking account. But sometimes good things come to an end. We lost our building, the owner decided he was going to use it for his own business so that left us without a place to keep processing. Since we had just recently filed bankruptcy a year or two before our deer processing adventure, we were unable to get any kind of loans to build something on our place to process in. However, if we had been able to stay in business, we might be doing 600 or so deer a year by now. That would be a lot of money. 

6oo deer at average weight of 100 pounds
X 
.70 cents per pound
--------------------
$42,000


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## ScotG

That is the info i was looking for....someone who has done it and knows the ins and outs. I am converting my garage this summer. I have ideas for the cooler and have made one in the past with a friend. Most expensive part is the compressor. the rest isnt to bad as far as cost. I plan to check with Michigan to see how bad they put their nose in my business lol. I know custom kill requirements but need to find out about deer in particular. If all else fails i will just do friends deer and accept donations . There are a few near me doing deer but its more a word of mouth type deal. Once I get approved and know big brother cant touch me I will advertise more. I also am planning a goat milk/cheese endeavor so I will have to meet state specs for that. My wife will be helping and most likely kicking me out of "her" business. I see the potential and have developed excellent sausage and salami recipes, all who try it want to buy mine then they find out I am in it for the food and not sharing lol. A long path ahead and thanks for all the info you and others have shared.

Scot


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## clovis

ScotG,

I have been to lots of restaurant auctions, and have seen commercial coolers nearly given away.

Last year, at auction, I witnessed a small walk-in commericial cooler that someone paid $11,000 for new. The entire unit was less than 1 year old. It was so clean that I think it could have been taken apart and resold as new. It literally glistened, it was so clean. 

The cooler sold for $500, and was the only bid.

I don't know much about coolers and freezers. This was a unit that was built out of wall units, if you will. 10 x 12 feet in size, maybe?

Usually, at foreclosure auctions, they are a dime a dozen. If you go, be prepared to promise the auctioneer you won't damage the building when you remove it.

Clove


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## ScotG

With this economy i am sure there will be many auctions coming this year. I will be hitting them that is for sure. If all else fails my goats and chickens will be butchered in style if the processing goes bad lol.


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## SunnyJim

I've been thinking about doing this myself, as I think I make a pretty good butcher!

One question I have is with the disposal of the carcasses, can you just get a dumpster or do you have to have them specially disposed of?


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## ScotG

I have a great garbage man....if I put it out he takes it lol. Without him I would be lost. My brother in law custom kills beef and hogs, he is allowed to put the carcass in but not the guts. With deer we dont have to worry about the heat and smell in the summer...THANKFULLY lol. i think it would depend on the garbage companies policy. if they wont take it you could check with a local rendering company, they may take it.


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## jtsummie

Something you might look in to... the man who slaughters my grandpa's beef takes the guts (if customers don't want them) and sells them as dog food. I'm not sure what he sells and what he does in order to sell it, but I know raw dog food is getting popular. just something to think about.


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## Ken Scharabok

On the contrary side, someone sent me this in response to my book on making extra money in the country since deer processing is mentioned in it:

âThe last 2 falls I have been trying to build my custom deer processing business into a big business. But after this last fall I've decided to call it quits also. I have made a profit both years but after this last round we decided it just isn't worth it. Our customers doubled from last year and there is a promise to double again next year. Our problem is that we would receive so many deer during the rifle seasons that we would have to work 18 hours per day to keep up with the demand. By the time we would take out the high cost of electricity to operate the coolers and freezers, pay our hired help, chase hot check writers down, and people not coming back to pick up there processed deer, it all ate into our profits bad enough to where it seemed we was only getting paid about $10 per day (thatâs my wife and my daily salary). Add all this to the fact that we have 3 little children of our own that we would have to take care of after school hours and on weekends. We would start processing on the 1st day of October and work right on through Thanksgiving holiday, take one day off for Christmas, and finally finish processing about the middle of January. No time to enjoy fall or holidays at all. 

When you add all the potential gross profits up for the amount of deer we processed it looked like we had the most lucrative business in the world. But what it really amounted to was we worked our butts off for very little pay. So next year I am only going to process 1 or 2 deer a day out of my garage/shop and do it myself only and for cash only to be paid at time of drop off.â

We have a local processor. I don't hunt, so don't know their price or if it cash in advance or upon pick up. Someone told me they sell unclaimed venison for something like $45 box.

Did you have a place to sell the hides to?

I have friends who will take a fresh roadkill. I skin it, gut it and process rest by axe into about seven pieces. They go from there.


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## lmnde

If you have problems disposing of the guts, scraps, heads and bones, contact some of the raw feeding forums - rawfeeding dog owners/breeders will love you forever and stand in line every year to get livers, hearts, lungs and stomaches and all the meaty bones + heads they can carry. [Not good to offer in areas with chronic wasting disease though!]. 

I had found a deer processor about an hour from our old place, and drove down once or twice a week during hunting season [they would call me when they had several trashcans full of skeletons] to get bones, scraps and offals etc. I also bought all of the already processed meat that did not got picked up at their processing cost. We have moved since and I haven't been able to find aprocessor close to where we are now - but would gladly do the same again! 

Also - they raised their own pigs, and a lot of the stuff I didn't get [they had quite a bit of volume - busy times they got 20-30 deer in a day] went to the pigs.


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