I personally know of 2 processors that are selling their "special" products - both deer meat - one is a really fine burger mix and another a nice smoked sausage

Good post Justin, both of the processors I mentioned earlier are selling the "specials" for the same price as posted processing fees. So theoretically they are good. Another posters argument about "donated" deer doesn't fly as those processors cannot resell that meat since processing has already been paid for.
So back to my original point to all - are the processors taking x pounds (say 4-5 pounds for every deer) and reselling your meat. Touchy subject I know, but there are ways around the law for a processor to make an additional profit if he is skimming off of your meat.

I have always been suspicious of processors not only taking meat but not giving you your meat when you pick it up. I just do my own.

Before i started to process my own, i took it to a processor. One of the last years I used them, I got back almost twice the meat I took in but when asked about bringing it back (obviously someone elses) was told..."dont worry about it". So not all do it right. Now I just do it myself, feel much better about it plus my grinder has paid itself off million times over.

I had asked for the ribs back one time and the backstrap in steak. After getting home, called and told them I had no ribs and the backstrap was missing. They said "come on back, we'll fix you up"....out of someone else's deer obviously.

Wife informed me tonite it was ready.
I clean all my deer. I keep and package the tender loins and backstrap myself. The only thing I take in is the hams and shoulders. I trim the meat up as I go, if any. They weigh what I bring in. Maybe someday, I will have the time to de-bone and grind up myself, but 2 hrs is still 2 hrs I usually don't have.

Got my kids carcass hog back from the meat mkt,didnt have no ribs.saw the owner in the local beer drinkin establishment and called him out on it,needless to say went by the next day and picked out two slabs out of the meat case..all the cheap labor he has hired, they never have to buy meat...

I am sure it happens...in ALL business there are always the crooks...

I've been using the same processor for 20+years. Your meat is weighed and you are provided with the weight. I have been in his cooler and his back room and I have seen how he works. The customers animal is kept in it's own bag...they process one animal at a time....not bulk where meat may get mixed in another bag. I even give em my backstrap to butterfly and I have never even slightly suspected one piece was missing.

And yes, here comes the unpaid promo...Thye make the BEST Jalapeno and Cheese Smoked links I've ever tasted....

Bay Area Deer Processing, Pasagetdowndena TX (713)472-6000

If you're close, try em once...I think you will be very glad you did...

(this announcement is an unpaid endorsememnt by the poster and is in no way a reflection of the thoughts and views of the Texas Hunting Forum )

IMO yes you do!!! I have always processed my own. You do not get what you pay for, because all they do is guess at how much you should get back once you bring in your meat. And to top it off you do not even get YOUR OWN MEAT BACK.....all they do is throw all of it together and process it. That part bothers me because I have seen how a lot of guys handle the meat before it even gets to the processor.....leave it out in the heat, drop it in the dirt, just throw em in the back of a truck with all kinds of oil,grease,etc....the list just goes on. I personally do not want any part of that!!!

I take mine to a processor, and have for the past 20 yrs. I have not had an issue with NOT getting my own deer back. They process each one separatly, and do a great job.

Last week I popped a doe and processed it myself and was surprised at how much waste there actually is.

If you have doubts, take it elsewhere, or do it your self, you may be surprised

You would be surprised how many people do not return to get their meat. I am not sure that this accounts for all of the extra that processors come up with, but by the same token, if they are processing 50 animals a day, as some in the Hill Country do, they cannot store all of that meat for very long, as they will run out of room. You can see ads in most newspapers about this time of the year where you can buy processed deer meat for just the butchering charge because some people failed to come and get their meat.

Well i was told they cant sell deer meat from the processor's. In Seymour the stuff up front is beef and pork. However I know that they have 20 or 30 people a year that dont go pick there meat back up. they order a ton of sausage then cant pay the bill. They say they donate that.

It is my understanding that the processor can be reimbursed for his processing charges, but cannot be paid for the meat itself.

At some places you have to ask for the extra meat be ground for you. If they do 20 lb batches but you take in 23 lbs what happens to the extra if you don't ask for it?

I know for fact sometime you do not get back what you take in. Deer processing is a money making mutha.....

Not only is it getting so expensive it is like leasing land X2 but they keep part of what you take them. They do not process each deer by themselves but all together and then fill the orders that you have given them and they do keep some of it for retail. Whether legal or not they do it.

Good post. Normally if we take something to get processed we debone ourself to save on processing fees etc. Recently we took in 44 lbs of deboned WT to be made into buck sticks. Was told byt the processor they add 50/50 pork which would have given us 88lbs total raw weight. Granted weight is lost when cooking but our final weight when we picked it up was 36lbs??? Thats 60% weight loss?! We called the processor who said it was normal to lose that amount after its cooked. Does anyone know a normal weight loss amount after cooked? I assume if all varies depending on what you are having done. Ie pan sausage id think would weigh close to what was quoted since its not cooked

Pan sausage should weigh as quoted.

Here is a chart for meat water contents: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Water_in_Meats/index.asp

Most meat is around 70% water. So if you were to dry it out in jerky, you're taking essentially all the water out. So if you take in 88 pounds of meat, expect to get 26.4 pounds of meat back. For cooking a steak, you would not expect much weight loss, maybe 10% loss or so, so if you were cooking 88 pounds to 140 degrees, you'd expect to have 79 or so pounds.

I woudl expect buck sticks to be almost as dry as jerky, but not quite. 36 pounds sounds reasonable to me. It would mean you lost 59% water weight, keeping 11% water.

if you're concerned about getting your own meat back ask your processor how he does it. some pool some keep it seperate. after working at a processor and seeing how some people take care of their animals i would not take it to one that pools. there are plenty that dont you just have to ask.

i can't wrap my head around why somebody should bring in 44lbs of deboned meat have more added to it and wind up with eight pounds less. i agree that you will lose quite a bit of weight with smoking. yes the pork will be fatty but it's not all fat. I don't know about that one. seems iffy

That makes no sense. I took a quartered doe in which weighed 28 lbs on the bone, no straps or tenders, just quarters, and got about 40 lbs back. Mostly sausage/brats. They ripped you off.

I don't think I'd want any part of an animal someone else brought in to a processor. I go to a lot of trouble to be sure the meat is clean and kept cold and fresh. Everyone doesn't do that. I would want only meat I harvested and dressed.

comparing brats to snack sticks is kinda like comparing apples to oranges though. two real different products. I would have expected quite a lot of weight loss for the sticks, i'm just suprised it's that much

The only way they are gonna get it right is to do it one at a time. Some do....some don't! My mon used to work at a meat locker and they always did the animals individually!

Of course you are getting ripped off! You could more than likely go to the store and buy sausage(where you didnt provide the meat) for less than what it costs you just to process yours.

We have always and always will process our own, from bullit to fork and knife its all done at home, never have to wonder about what is happening to my meat and if im getting it back or not.

matt

I donate deer to my processor all the time. Have no idea what he does with it. We have way too many doe on our lease.

At a processor East of Graham, I was in their store looking around killing time, and the sales lady was giving away 2 lb samples of their Jap/Cheese Deer Summer Sausage. It struck me kinda odd that they had that on hand in July. I suppose it was an unclaimed deer. Is what spoiled me on the processors was the pooling of meat, and the price. When they charge you $4.99/lb for Jap/Cheese Summer Sausage, that is a high price and I would feel cheated because I did not get my own meat back. I am fortunate enough to have an extra 3 hours to make my own during the season and save $3.65/lb.