Thread: Central otago venison recovery

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/far...-meat-handling

Two issues her from a hunters perspective:

From a Food safety perspective it would seem to be fairly dodgy loading all those deer carcasses into an un refriderated open tray truck in the middle of central otago in the middle of summer.

Also the same Wanaka based helicopter companies repeatedly shooting deer of conservation land before the roar.
It is easy tussock land country in areas that are important for recreational hunting.

My bet is its for pet food.
As DoC can't keep proper records of where they've dumped that green shit, the deer recovery can't do the correct paperwork so the meat can't be used for human consumption.

I know of a few guys that have bought thermal scopes and spotters to use and are taking large numbers of deer out each weekend and it all goes to pet food

Originally Posted by cambo

My bet is its for pet food.
As DoC can't keep proper records of where they've dumped that green shit, the deer recovery can't do the correct paperwork so the meat can't be used for human consumption.

I know of a few guys that have bought thermal scopes and spotters to use and are taking large numbers of deer out each weekend and it all goes to pet food

Mountain river doesn't do pet food iirc.

They certainly wouldn't be paying 7 bucks a kilo for it if they were.

JoJo will be doing it for the EU market.
We were all in the same group when we were doing venison. They know what they're doing and if there was one bit of taint in those deer they get chucked and the operator loses out.
The standards required these days is miles higher than when we used to take a day and a half to get an animal out for sale when meat shooting.

Can't do paper work? What does that mean?

We knew exactly when and where we were able to hunt. 1080 was never an issue if you were honest.




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Originally Posted by yogi

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/far...-meat-handling

Two issues her from a hunters perspective:

From a Food safety perspective it would seem to be fairly dodgy loading all those deer carcasses into an un refriderated open tray truck in the middle of central otago in the middle of summer.

Also the same Wanaka based helicopter companies repeatedly shooting deer of conservation land before the roar.
It is easy tussock land country in areas that are important for recreational hunting.

Respectably, I disagree with you,

Regarding the meat handling, this has been happening in this manner for decades without any particular issue.

Issue here should not be taken with the operator(s).
Take it up with DOC as they issue the concession to operate within the conservancy. The operator is undertaking an entirely permissible activity.

This turned up on Facebook on a hunting page long story short: landlocked DOC block surrounded by three private properties. Hunter ( landowner or worker or mate thereof) bent out of shape their “private” DOC block got WAROd. Posters pointed out they hadn’t exactly been letting joe blogs access it anyway so sympathy non existent.
Of course no health issue it’s just a poor me rant.

As I understand it, the choppers shot the front faces of the hawkduns then along the manuherikera west branch to the omarama saddle. That land is accessible to ground hunters, albeit with a fair walk to some parts. Whereas over the hawkduns ridge to the interior is a big dodgy drive up the only track , past the bomb disposal site. I have done it but its a fine weather track only and ends up being a bit of a mission. I realize that waro happens and it ain't going away anytime soon, but why do they have to clean out the ground that we can get to safely instead of hunting out the areas that arnt so easy to get to by foot and vehicle. Us ground hunters use those areas too feed ourselves, friends and family. We do not make income off it like waro choppers and shooters do. I know some like @R93 will completely disagree with me, Its just my thoughts and feelings bout it is all. I wish there where better alternatives but as alot of other grounds in my area are getting poisened on a realitivly regular basis, it gets very difficult to find areas that aren't getting smashed by the powers that be.

It’s annoying as all hell when it’s your back yard but part of hunting the South Island. Things are still a lot rosier than the eighties which isn’t to say it shouldn’t be managed better, it’s just not going to be any time soon.

I do agree with you in part actually. But it doesn't phase me or wind me up like some.

Waro is dying in NZ. Costs and red tape make it too hard to setup. Experienced operators that can make a difference are drying up as well.

I along with many others still made a decent dollar, foot shooting deer in areas that would see multiple machines a day.

Imo it is piss easy to find a deer these days. Maybe too easy.

Whingeing about 70 deer off that country for a day, is just that....whingeing.
If it was done everyday for a season then fair enough.

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Must be a dollar or two in it if they can use a Squirrel

I’d suggest the Astar is only used to haul the carcasses to the truck and another machine does the hunting.

Originally Posted by outdoorlad

Must be a dollar or two in it if they can use a Squirrel

You only need 5 deer an hour to turn a profit no matter what machine you use at $7 per kilo. With average pay weight at 45kg. 45-50kg would be an average weight throughout a season on the coast and otago.

Head, skin and pluck removed before you make any money.
Used to be just pluck removed for payout.

The smaller machine you use the more profit in some cases. But then you cannot lift as many so it all tends to even out if you have a big run.

However I doubt they are shooting out of the 350. It will be just ferrying carcasses.

A good pilot and shooter can make an R44 very profitable but then an R44 is limited to certain terrain due to clearances and power.

At the end of the day venison is just cash flow for a business. There would be very few operators that could afford to rely on it as their only income these days.



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Ffs why do so many people get all upset and anti towards waro? It's a necessary tool for the management of deer on conservation land. Consider the alternatives.. truckloads of 1080? It serves a purpose and allows the operators to make a buck at the same time, I for one would much rather see animals slung under a machine than left to rot on the hill due to indiscriminate poisoning. Imagine for a minute that we did nothing.. We would probably have an explosion in the deer population for the short term, untill the habitat they live in can't support the numbers and the population naturally declines again, the attraction to hunting for me would be gone if anyone could go shoot a deer because you couldn't even get to the carpark without running into one, or a whole group of them. Like it or not, some of the reasoning behind what DOC does in regards to eradicating deer has merit, they make take things a bit far and refuse to accept that they are actually shooting themselves in the foot by using methods such as poisoning (ie: "Save the birds" but in reality end up killing a whole shit tonne of them..) but totally ruined habitats isn't going to support native flora and fauna, and it sure as hell isn't going to support deer either.

You obviously didn't do any hunting in the 80's.

The WARO people I know (not many) are mostly doing rabbits, geese and pigs from choppers rather than deer the last couple of years, but this year is different.

Theres a bloke down here shooting a few using thermal gear on private blocks for ...pet food !

The problem is this waro operation is targeting one of the most popular and important recreational hunting area in otago.

They are targeting this area because it's easy and a profitable operation.
Basically no regard for the public

The bottom line is this land belongs to the public and it's not acceptable that this waro activity has taken place in this area.

Theses helicopter companies could go and carry venison recovery on private country as much as they like. Private country still makes up the bulk of land ownership.

There is a huge amount of feed in this area with very limited conservation value in terms of vulnerable vegetation.
The deer numbers are not going to become a problem due to recreational hunting in this area.

I don't understand why guys on here are supportive of a very wealthy family owned company going out if their way to screw up our hunting.