Easy steps to process your own deer

EASY STEPS

Dto processing your own deer eer hunters in the Douglas County Eric area will be faced with a decision Morken this year after filling their tags OUTDOORS EDITOR on whitetails – try to find a meat processor that is taking whole carcasses and maybe to hang the deer – by its travel an extra distance to legs or by its neck. I have drop their deer off. worked from both angles

Or they could butcher the and don’t really have a huge animal themselves. preference. There is a device

Miltona Meats in Douglas that attaches right into the County, which normally receiver of your truck for takes nearly 700 deer a year people who want to buy a during firearms season, won’t product that will aid in the be taking full carcasses this butchering process. I often season due to the COVID-19 just use a sturdy rope and pandemic. Neither will Lake tree limb. Country Meats in Alexandria. If butchering a deer Both will be accepting hanging from the neck, take trimmings to process into a sharp skinning knife and sausage, burger and other cut upward under the hide final products. starting near the top of the

Klinder Processing chest cavity. Once you are of Carlos will take deer near the top of the neck carcasses this season, but under the jaw, slice the hide won’t be able to absorb more around the entire neck. The deer than the typical 400 or hide should almost rip off by so it has the staff to butcher grabbing and pulling down each fall. after that.

If you haven’t ever done The process is the same if Gary Morken butchers a doe he shot during the opening week of the North it before, this might be butchering a deer hanging Dakota archery season this year. (Eric Morken / Echo Press) the perfect season to try from its legs. Start from the butchering your own deer. This has always been a part of my deer-hunting tradition. My dad let me tag along in the woods with him from the time I was about 6 or 7 years old. Part of hunting if he got a deer was hanging it and then butchering, deboning and packaging the meat ourselves. I love being a part of that process from start to finish, and it’s really not difficult. Here is a step-by-step process in how I go about butchering my deer from start to finish in case you want to give it a try this year. GETTING THE HIDE OFF The first step in the butchering process is getting the hide off the animal. The biggest thing here is deciding how you want highest point on both hind quarters, cut the hide all the way up toward the knee and make a slit around each joint. This should allow you to grab hold and pull the hide down. REMOVING EXCESS HAIR So much of getting greattasting meals from deer comes in the preparation, and that starts during the butchering process. We always remove the excess hair that gets on the meat after taking the hide off by using a small, hand-held propane torch and burning it. Look closely over all parts of the animal to remove any hair that might get left behind on streaks, roasts or trimmings. Careful preparation of burning the hair, removing fat and silver skin and then washing the meat at the end of the butchering process makes for great meals where you don’t have to worry about experiencing that “gamey” taste that you hear people talk about with wild game. REMOVING LOINS, HINDQUARTERS Now it’s time to remove the loins and quarter the animal. Make sure you don’t forget to take the tenderloins in this process. These small straps of meat that fry up great for a stir fry or grilled as a steak are found inside the chest cavity along the spine. You really don’t even need a knife to get at them. Simply take your fingers and run them along the rib cage or the vertebrae. It should pull out easily. From there, I remove the backstraps that I’ll cut into steaks. These run parallel to the vertebrae on the outside of the rib cage and are simple to remove. Run your knife along the spine to break the silver skin you see covering the red meat. Then cut down to the last rib perpendicular to the spine at the end of the back strap to get your start. I like to work from the top of a backstrap and cut down. Simply take one hand and slightly pull the backstrap away from the rib cage. Use the knife to separate the meat from bone. PROCESS page 13

PROCESS from page 12

Now I move on to removing the quarters. The front shoulders are easy. Grab hold near the elbow area of the animal and pull the shoulder away from the rib cage. The whole quarter will separate by simply cutting away at the connective tissue without going through any bone.

The hindquarters can be a little more of a process. I like to use a Sawzall, but a hand-held bone saw will work to remove the whole back end of the deer from the vertebrae.

That can also be used to cut through bone and separate the two hind quarters to be more easily worked on during the deboning process.

DEBONING THE MEAT

This is the part of the process that I assume intimidates most people who are new to working on their own big game.

Two key points I’ll make here are to use the bone as a guide and simply concentrate on separating the muscle groups of the hindquarters.

All of the meat off the front shoulder goes into trim for me to grind into burger. It doesn’t have to look fancy. I like to use a sharp and fairly pliable fillet knife here. Work the knife against the bone to remove all of the meat.

The important thing to recognize with the hindquarters is that these are multiple muscle groups that can be easily separated. Find the seams with your fingers and use your knife to separate the tissue that holds the muscles together by cutting all the way down to the bone.

PREPARING THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Once all the meat is entirely deboned, what you want to do with it is up to you.

Some people put most of their meat into burger, sausage, deer sticks, etc. Those are things you can do yourself too with the proper equipment, but all local meat processors are taking trimming to make into those finished products still.

By the time everything is done, I have steaks cut out of every last inch of backstrap. I have about six roasts and many pounds of trim that I will grind into burger myself with the addition of a little bit of beef or pork fat that can be purchased for almost nothing at grocery stores or meat shops by calling them in advance.

For anyone who has never tried butchering their own deer, I strongly recommend giving it a try. It’s rewarding being a part of this entire process when you sit down for the multiple meals you will get out of your deer this year.

Knowing how to butcher your own deer is good practice, especially when taking out-of-state hunts now due to regulations in place that do not allow the transfer of carcasses across borders to limit the chance of spreading CWD. This 2019 North Dakota buck was shot in early November last year on an evening sit before taking the next day to butcher and debone the meat. (Eric Morken / Echo Press)

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Hoping the numbers lie

PHEASANTS from page 6

going to see this, and they’re going to go out. In one way, it’s almost too bad because we still had good hunting even in down years. You may have had to work a little harder, but this good news is going to bring out the hunters, which I love to see.”

Minnesota’s pheasant season begins Oct. 10 and runs to Jan. 3, 2021.

Ideal weather conditions with a dry June not only lead to early and successful hatches, but it helps the chicks head into the fall and winter season in better shape. The peak pheasant hatch was approximately four days earlier than average this year.

Hunters can expect great opportunities to see birds in the southwest and very good hunting prospects in the west-central, central and south-central regions, which all reported more than 50 birds per 100 miles.

DNR officials said there is better news on the habitat front with a net gain of 10,000 acres of former cropland going back into the Conservation Reserve Program since 2019, a small total but in the right direction.

Monitoring pheasant population trends is part of the DNR’s annual August roadside wildlife survey, which began in 1955. Wildlife managers and conservation officers in the farmland regions conduct the survey during the first half of August. This year’s survey consisted of 169 25-mile-long routes, with 153 routes located in the pheasant range.

Observers drive each route in the early morning and record the number of wildlife game species they see. The data provide an index of species abundance and are used to monitor annual fluctuations and long-term population trends of pheasants, Hungarian partridge, eastern cottontail rabbits, white-tailed jackrabbits, mourning doves, sandhill cranes and white-tailed deer. Full information on this year’s roadside count can be seen on the DNR website. The 2020 pheasant prospects map is based on the annual DNR August roadside count and is intended as an indicator of relative density. There may be sites with good pheasant habitat and numbers within overall areas considered to have poor hunting prospects, and vice versa. (Map from the Minnesota DNR)

A combination of plenty of birds surviving the winter and a good spring sets up Minnesota pheasant hunters for a promising 2020 season.

“We saw and heard a lot of birds this year while turkey hunting,” Krebs said of the habitat he hunts around the Alexandria area. “That’s a little bit anecdotal because it’s just one spot, but even driving to and from in the areas where we go, we saw a lot more pheasants in the spring than we had in many years. We kept saying, ‘If we get a good hatch, this is going to be a good year.’ I think we pulled off a phenomenal hatch.”

(John Myers of the Forum News Service contributed to this story)

Minnesota’s pheasant season October 10, 2020 – January 3, 2021

BEAR from page 8

A sow black bear stands in thick growth near a white pine holding at least one cub near Duluth. (Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com)

the data was tracked in 1999. Just under 30% of the total 2019 harvest of bears was taken in no-quota zones.

Maybe the record number of licenses sold in no-quota zones is an indicator that more people are seeing a bear or two in nontraditional areas of the state. Populations certainly aren’t high in Douglas County, but hunters aren’t too far from what are considered better bear areas to the north and east of Alexandria.

“Just getting into Otter Tail County would up your chances,” Strege said. “I don’t know that it would up it a ton. Their population of bears isn’t super high either, but you start getting into Carlos, Miltona, that area, that’s still Douglas County, but they do go up two or three a year. You don’t have to go far north to start increasing your potential.”

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Hoping the numbers lie DEER from page 4

County that is not considered to have the high deer numbers that are seen in some portions of the area.

“We’re hoping it’s an extremely low probability that we had any infection transfer from that farm into the wild deer herd,” Glenwood DNR assistant wildlife manager Jason Strege said. “We’re hoping we’re not going to find it.”

Hunters are being asked to help out in answering that question more definitively. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all CWD sampling in Minnesota is voluntary this year.

Hunters in the west-central surveillance zone can drop off the heads of adult deer (1 year or older) at self-service sampling stations any time of day at multiple locations (listed below) starting on Oct. 15. The sampling will be done until a goal number (862 points in DPA 213 and 385 points in DPA 273) is reached on a weighted point system.

Each deer is assessed a point value based on age and sex, with deer such as older-aged bucks that have been shown to be more likely carriers of the disease due to their age and rutting behavior being assigned a greater point value.

“I like their testing program. It’s a good start,” Nohre said. “I know us guys at (the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association), we’re supporting them. I hope hunters are cooperative with this. I haven’t had five guys rush up to me and say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do this.’ But I’d like to see a good turnout for this.”

A group of area taxidermists and meat processors (listed below) are also helping by taking samples throughout the whole deer season. Hunters interested in taking a deer to a taxidermist or meat processor listed should contact them ahead of time to make sure they are available.

“This sampling technique is new for the Minnesota DNR,” Strege said. “It’s been tried in several other states as a different type of sampling, just because the last number of years now it’s basically been every DNR employee has gone all hands on deck on this. It is taking a tremendous amount of staff time and resources to sample with our traditional sampling locations where it’s a staffed area and we extract samples.”

The meat processors and taxidermists will get about $10 per sample, or $5 if they are just collecting the head of the animal and not doing the lymph node extraction.

“That kind of sounds like a lot of money when you start dealing with a couple thousand deer, but I think we sampled something like 18,000 deer in the 2019 season,” Strege said. “If you start putting in fleet cost, employee wages, hotel bills, all that stuff makes it significantly less cost per sample than our traditional way of sampling.”

With sampling being voluntary, hunters’ willingness to help out is a very important part of the process in trying to find out if there is any chance CWD was transferred into the wild herd. Chronic Wasting Disease is a slow, progressive disease that is always fatal in deer but can incubate for 18 months up to three years before clinical signs start to appear. Because of that, hunters are reminded that CWD positive deer may look entirely healthy.

“The more testing we do, the sooner we find out, the sooner we can lift the feeding bans and that sort of thing too,” Nohre said. A map of CWD sampling stations in deer-permit areas 273 and 213 where hunters can drop off heads of deer ages 1 and older starting on Oct. 15. The heads will then be collected to test for CWD in the wild deer herd after a captive deer was found to be CWD positive from a farm in Douglas County in late 2019. (Map courtesy of the Minnesota DNR)

WEST-CENTRAL CWD SURVEILLANCE AREA INFORMATION (Consists of Deer Permit Areas 213 and 273)

What can hunters harvest: All regular season rules apply. There are no special restrictions or exceptions in this area.

Carcass movement: There are no deer carcass movement restrictions for deer taken in the surveillance area.

Deer feeding ban: Douglas and Pope Counties are a part of a deer-feeding ban that includes the counties of Carlton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Pine and Stearns. Attractants have not been banned in these counties.

Deer feeding includes the placement or distribution of grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, hay or other food that is capable of enticing deer.

Deer feeding and attractant ban: Todd County is a part of the counties under a deer feeding and attractant ban. Deer attractants are considered natural or manufactured products capable of attracting or enticing deer, including salt, minerals, liquid food scents or any products that contain cervid urine, blood, gland oil, feces or other bodily fluid. 2020 sampling stations (city, location): Hunters can drop off heads of deer 1-year old and older any time of day at the following locations starting on Oct. 15 until goal is reached.

ALEXANDRIA - Bear Paw Taxidermy; EAGLE BEND - Shirley’s Gas and Grocery; ELBOW LAKE - West Central Skulls; GLENWOOD - Cenex; KENSINGTON - Crossroads Convenience Store; LONG PRAIRIE - Long Prairie Fleet Supply; OSAKIS - Head of Lakes Resort, Lake Osakis South Public Access; SAUK CENTRE - Big Sauk Lake Highway 71 Public Access; STARBUCK - Cenex; VILLARD - Cenex

Taxidermist and meat processor information for sampling: Hunters can drop off deer for sampling at the following taxidermists and meat processors throughout the season. Contact them ahead of time to schedule an appointment.

ALEXANDRIA - Randy Schoeneck (507-327-7607); Matthew Nygaard (320-808-0913); Bear Paw Taxidermy (320-759-0703)

BROOTEN - Jenniges Meat Processing (320-346-2414)

DALTON - Natural Images Taxidermy (218-589-7502)

ELBOW LAKE - West Central Skulls (218-770-8990)

POULTS from page 5

One report out of Pennsylvania looked at multiple studies of eastern wild turkeys, the subspecies found in Minnesota, that showed the proportion of poults that die in their first two weeks of life ranged from 56-73 percent. And that’s for the birds that even reach that stage. Nest predation is also a big factor in low production rates.

“Any of the upland nesting birds have a high mortality rate,” Strege said. “That’s across the board. I’m not familiar with any current studies that have been conducted around here. Just because we’re not really considered a destination state for turkeys, but it’s tough for them. A 2-year-old turkey is getting to be an old turkey.”

The National Wild Turkey Federation lists a number of factors that impact turkey populations, but one that trumps them all is habitat. Areas of quality habitat, meaning large swaths of early-successional growth and other thick cover, have higher nesting-success rates by keeping hens hidden from more predators.

It also creates the best-possible diet for the poults, with plenty of insect life and overhead cover for them to seek that food out without being spotted by predators before they can fly into trees. The NWTF said studies have shown up to 90 percent mortality rates for poults without suitable brood habitat.

Then there’s the weather to worry about. Like pheasants, cold, wet springs can be tough on young birds in states with colder climates like Minnesota. That’s where local turkeys likely caught a huge break.

“It was super dry this spring,” Strege said. “A lot of the storms that hit northern Minnesota and southern Minnesota completely missed our work area. Through all of June, we didn’t have any sort of rain events that should have affected production on pheasants or turkeys. With that said, our August roadside counts didn’t pick up the pheasants like I thought it would. But that could have just been hit or miss type of stuff. We had what should have been an excellent nesting season for upland birds this year.”

Seven, eight years ago, it was nothing for me to hear gobbles from every ridge top during my spring hunting, even in areas of southwestern Minnesota that have not traditionally been thought of as the ideal turkey range in the state.

I still have birds to chase in those areas, but numbers have certainly been down from that high mark over the last handful of years. Maybe we’re in for a boom in the population again after conditions seemingly aligned for a good hatch this past spring.

“One hard winter, one bad nesting season can really drive population numbers up and down,” Strege said. “It’s not like your birds are living 5-6 years to withstand that, so you’ll see heavy swings in populations, that’s for sure. Seven, eight years ago, it wasn’t much to see a group of 40, 50 birds, especially in the really high-quality habitat of Pope County and areas like that. I haven’t been seeing that the last half dozen years or so. It would be nice to have a good reproductive year on it.” This big flock of wild turkeys near Alexandria on Sept. 1 featured a mixed bag of toms, hens and poults that have been very visible throughout this whole summer after what seems to be an ideal nesting season for upland birds in the area during the spring of 2020. (Eric Morken / Echo Press)

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Hunting and fishing: noble activities

National Hunting and Fishing Day brings together sportsmen and women to celebrate the rich tradition of hunting, target shooting and fishing with national, state, regional and local organizations hosting related events.

Launched in 1971 by Congress, NHF Day has consistently recognized hunters and anglers for their leadership in wildlife and conservation. NHF Day is observed and celebrated the fourth Saturday in September every year.

Before the advent of agriculture, human beings hunted and fished for their food. Even after agricultural practices had been established, hunting continued to occupy an important role in sourcing out food for survival and trade. Still today, hunting and fishing are important food sources for many people.

Despite that reality, hunting and fishing are often denounced as cruel and unnecessary. These critics couldn’t be more ill-informed. The majority of hunters and anglers respect the rules surrounding the sport, including guidelines and laws governing the preservation of animal species.

In fact, hunting and fishing helps to keep many wild animal populations under control. In addition, these activities offer an ideal opportunity for friends and family members to get together and spend quality time doing something active. And it should not be forgotten that the vast majority of hunters and fishermen eat what they catch, without wasting any.

This year’s National Hunting and Fishing Day takes place on Saturday, Sept. 26. To discover more about these activities, which are an integral part of our history, visit www.nhfday.org.

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