Scottish venison and vegan extremism

It has become clear that one of the main focusses in Holyrood is the reduction of the deer population throughout Scotland. With an estimated 1 million deer in Scotland, a figure that is disputed since there are no clear records of how many lowland deer exist, the Scottish Government are channelling efforts into the reduction of populations across the nation. But there is a problem. There is very little money to support the effort and, given that around 50,000 additional deer are to be shot per year in Scotland alone, there doesn’t seem to be a stable market in the UK to receive these numbers.

The head of a well-known venison handling facility in Scotland once quoted that the company could quite easily cope with the additional deer that might enter the food chain as a result of the new Scottish Government figures, and I have no doubt that it could, but this comes at a cost to others. The increase in venison in the market will surely continue to drive the price that the land manager will receive for a carcass down. It has already dropped from around £2.40 per kilo just 5 years ago to around £1 per kilo now. Even at its height, costs were not being covered and those who control deer numbers would absorb the shortfall. Now, many consider it madness to even bother going out shooting deer since they would lose so much money in doing so, not to mention the fact that it is extremely difficult to achieve consistency in relation to a venison dealer picking up the carcasses. I, myself, have been left with 7 carcasses hanging in the larder for more than a week after broken promises of collection day after day.

In times when food miles should count more than ever, what we are seeing is a system whereby land managers are being paid a pittance for their deer and the majority of the venison is being shipped abroad, instead of being readily available to the local community in schools, hospitals, food banks and local authority buildings. Instead, there are small minorities in positions of power in universities, councils and other facilities who actively campaign for their site to go vegan. Some facilities have already signed up to meat-free menus, giving the majority of employees, residents, students and patients absolutely no choice in what they want to eat on site. The Scottish Countryside Alliance (SCA) has been campaigning against these extremists and have had some success in helping to block some of these motions passing. In January this year, I undertook a keto diet myself, cancelling out at least 10 veganuary participants single-handedly with the amount of meat I consumed.

Over the past 12 months, The SCA has been campaigning for better marketing of venison, normalising the consumption of a lean, healthy and sustainable food source. Others are doing their bit too as it was recently announced that a £119k pilot fund has been secured by NatureScot and the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS). The project will see SAOS working alongside the Lowland Deer Network Scotland (LDNS) and Scottish Venison and could provide funding of up to 50% of capital costs to successful applicants. The intention is that this new source of funding will provide an improved infrastructure for handling and processing venison carcasses at a local level. This would allow lowland deer stalkers and wildlife managers access to vital resources such as small chillers and other necessary facilities and equipment to carry out their operations in the Scottish lowland areas. Here’s a radical (or not so radical in my mind) suggestion too – does our sector actually need a Venison Dealers Licence if we are already trained hunters and are able to inspect deer carcasses properly prior to direct public sale, and is this just acting as a barrier?

The COVID Recovery Fund currently supports three pilot chiller projects in Dumfries & Galloway, North Argyll, and Moray. The new facility at Barwhillanty Estate, Castle Douglas, cost around £50,000 and is predominantly for red, roe and fallow deer, and consists of both a chill and prep room. The COVID Recovery Fund provided around £20,000 for this project, with the estate funding the rest and is operated via a membership scheme.

In recent figures published by NatureScot, they estimated that income from deer management per annum is £15.8m, yet it costs £36.8m to shoot the deer. The private sector bears the brunt of this £21m shortfall, so further incentivisation from the Scottish Government is needed to help minimise this additional expenditure. Part-funding of equipment such as chillers, will go a long way to bridge the gap between deer management and venison production. These types of schemes will hopefully allow deer managers to produce good quality, nutritious venison products for the UK food market and beyond. The SCA welcomes the new pilot project and hopes that further projects and incentivisation schemes are rolled out to help the 80% of private deer managers across Scotland to access vital resources to continue building on this infrastructure.

The new pilot scheme is open for submissions from stalkers and groups from Friday 31 January 2025 and will run until Thursday 20 March 2025, with successful applicants notified by the end of March. SAOS staff are available to help with applications and initial enquiries should be directed to venison@saos.coop

This article was originally produced in the Farming Scotland April 2025 Issue and can be viewed on pages 84-85 hereabout this blogabout this blog.