Waitrose promoting New Zealand red deer, why??

[Pilatus]

I have just seen in Waitrose “Weekend” paper an advert promoting ,red deer from selected British and New Zealand farms. Why does red deer meat need to be imported from New Zealand?
In the bottom corner of the same advert, I quote “ New Zealand Venison Rack £33.74 kg.”
I am slightly confused by the advert as in one part of the advert they say “Red Deer” and then they mention the Venison???
Surely with so many wild deer needing to be culled, why do we need to import
venison?

 

[kiwi pom]

I have just seen in Waitrose “Weekend” paper an advert promoting ,red deer from selected British and New Zealand farms. Why does red deer meat need to be imported from New Zealand?
In the bottom corner of the same advert, I quote “ New Zealand Venison Rack £33.74 kg.”
I am slightly confused by the advert as in one part of the advert they say “Red Deer” and then they mention the Venison???
Surely with so many wild deer needing to be culled, why do we need to import
venison?

Why not?
People buy things produced in other countries all the time, why should food be different?
Perhaps they cant buy enough locally, or its too expensive or the imported stuff's better?
How many TFF members farm Deer?

 

[Pilatus]

Why not?
People buy things produced in other countries all the time, why should food be different?
Perhaps they cant buy enough locally, or its too expensive or the imported stuff's better?
How many TFF members farm Deer?

I quite understand your reply.
My point is the hypocrisy of society/industry/ mankind worldwide, on one hand they will promote what they are doing to help reduce climate change/ help the environment, then they turn round and import stuff from around the world!!!
In a real world transporting stuff around the world is known as global
commerce and with out imports/ exports world trade would not exist.
How the carbon emissions are significantly reduced from the ships,planes, trains and trucks that
are moving all this stuff is a different story.

 

[kiwi pom]

I quite understand your reply.
My point is the hypocrisy of society/industry/ mankind worldwide, on one hand they will promote what they are doing to help reduce climate change/ help the environment, then they turn round and import stuff from around the world!!!
In a real world transporting stuff around the world is known as global
commerce and with out imports/ exports world trade would not exist.
How the carbon emissions are significantly reduced from the ships,planes, trains and trucks that
are moving all this stuff is a different story.

Complicated isn't it. I don't know what the answer is and I think we're all hypocrites in one way or another.
There's no one answer, banning air travel wont work, food miles only concentrate on one thing and people still need to have a way of making money and having something to do.
Personally I think science and technology is going to help us out of trouble, more efficient, less polluting forms of transport for a start.
As Matt Damon said in The Martian we're going to have to science the sh*t out of it.
Going back to living in caves wont work.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Farmed venison is preferred over wild venison as it is a more consistent product.

@jellybean is best placed to comment on UK farmed vension production, but I understand demand far outstrips supply, hence the NZ imports.

 

[Pilatus]

Farmed venison is preferred over wild venison as it is a more consistent product.

@jellybean is best placed to comment on UK farmed vension production, but I understand demand far outstrips supply, hence the NZ imports.

So much for the theory that “naturally reared meat is best”.
For goodness sake what do society really want, dreamers???

 

[Kiwi Pete]

@Two Tone also has deer if my memory serves correctly?
Venison is quite strong here again, velvet, venison and genetics are all selling high.
Good tucker but I prefer to just put a small hole behind the ear and carry it to the road, as I like my venison hung for a couple of weeks

 

[deleted user 837354]

Complicated isn't it. I don't know what the answer is and I think we're all hypocrites in one way or another.
There's no one answer, banning air travel wont work, food miles only concentrate on one thing and people still need to have a way of making money and having something to do.
Personally I think science and technology is going to help us out of trouble, more efficient, less polluting forms of transport for a start.
As Matt Damon said in The Martian we're going to have to science the sh*t out of it.
Going back to living in caves wont work.

Molten salt reactors dishing out 150MWt would propel a typical merchant vessel at their typical speed plus 70% meaning faster transport and with a lifetime of 20 years before refuelling, whilst using technology available today.

 

[Dave6170]

Molten salt reactors dishing out 150MWt would propel a typical merchant vessel at their typical speed plus 70% meaning faster transport and with a lifetime of 20 years before refuelling, whilst using technology available today.

Britain could be a world leader in new technologies like we were with nuclear but we just let other countries do it now

 

[Dry Rot]

I occasionally feed my dogs on venison "trimmings" from the game dealer. These are the bits trimmed away from bullet holes/damaged areas/etc. I was paying £15 for a 15kgs (?) box abou† a year ago. I called at the same game dealers last week and the price had shot up to £80 a box!!!

The manager tells me the demand for animal protein worldwide is cyclical and the price will go down again, eventually. I was so shocked I forgot to ask the price of pheasants which according to the gossip can't be given away, so it's back to the bagged stuff.

 

[jellybean]

I have just seen in Waitrose “Weekend” paper an advert promoting ,red deer from selected British and New Zealand farms. Why does red deer meat need to be imported from New Zealand?
In the bottom corner of the same advert, I quote “ New Zealand Venison Rack £33.74 kg.”
I am slightly confused by the advert as in one part of the advert they say “Red Deer” and then they mention the Venison???
Surely with so many wild deer needing to be culled, why do we need to import
venison?

The ONLY reason for the existence of any supermarket is to generate profits. Once you have grasped that fact all the other questions answer themselves.

 

[jellybean]

This may be of interest and helps put things in perspective.

At a glance industry statistics | Deer Industry New Zealand

An overall look at the NZ deer Industry's current figures.

www.deernz.org

 

[unlacedgecko]

According to those figures they have a weaning percentage of only .80!

Is this in line with UK figures?

 

[Two Tone]

@Two Tone also has deer if my memory serves correctly?
Venison is quite strong here again, velvet, venison and genetics are all selling high.
Good tucker but I prefer to just put a small hole behind the ear and carry it to the road, as I like my venison hung for a couple of weeks

Correct and ours is sold via Waitrose too.
Our venison season is for only 6 months and NZ makes up for the other 6 months, being in the Southern Hemisphere.
But Waitrose are being slightly awkward with the UK farmers and have recently reduced our price, claiming that NZ venison is slightly cheaper.
The real reason being that they only import the meat they can easily sell, rather than having to find sales for all the carcass.
I warned our group that this would happen a couple of years ago, when they insisted that they build their own abattoir and ban us from using our group’s own one. Hence, we are now actively seeking other purchasers, rather than relying on one supermarket for all our sales.
Such a pity because Waitrose were brilliant at first, but have inevitably followed the path of all supermarkets and screwed us.
The group Abattoir, having been mothballed can hopefully reopen again if needed.

 

[jellybean]

I cannot speak for others but my average weaning % over 40 years is 85%. Weaning here is usually sometime in December so at about 7 months. Many others will wean in Aug/Sept.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

As an aside, how do you guys manage the tb side of things, must be a right royal PITA?

Venison schedules just creeping down here, about the $9/kg mark at the moment I hear

 

[jellybean]

As an aside, how do you guys manage the tb side of things, must be a right royal PITA?

Venison schedules just creeping down here, about the $9/kg mark at the moment I hear

Pete, we are waiting for the introduction of a TB test for deer that actually works. It will probably be similar to the one used in NZ or Spain. Currently there is no compulsory test unless exporting livestock, so the true state of infection is unknown. Cattle owners are kicking up about deer herds known to be infected but not doing anything about it and therefore leaving a reservoir of infection that threatens their cattle. Quite rightly so of course.
But in the absence of a test that works how can a deer farmer sort out a problem. It will happen though eventually because the serious deer farmers know that without proven health status there is no future. Johnes is another potential problem, the state of which is also unknown.