Venison Swaps

Deer season may seem a little far off to some people, but here at Miller’s Meat Market we know it is never too early to start preparing! Depending on how much luck you had during the last hunting season, you may still have a venison filled freezer with no room for this falls success! It is the time of year where hunters begin to clear out the freezers in preparation for deer season, but what are you supposed to do with last years meat? We conduct a service to our customers that allows you to bring us your clean and good quality venison and leave the same day with our specialty venison products, and I’m here to explain how it works!

In the past we have found that there is some confusion surrounding this service that we offer. My goal is to clarify what our “swap” really means, and help everyone understand how the process works. This is an extremely popular feature of our business, one that provides extra convenience and less hassle to our customers. We have hunters that are loyal to us even though they live quite a distance away. Some individuals come from three plus hours away with their deer meat and are thankful that they can leave that day with freshly made venison product and can avoid another day long trip. When customers come in looking to partake in a venison swap, the first thing we do it weigh up the meat that they bring. As we transfer their meat into our clean lugs, we look over the meat to make sure it is all venison. If there is different kinds of meat, freezer burnt meat, or anything else that looks questionable we do not include that in the weighed amount and the customer can either take that back home with them or we can dispose of it upon the customers request. Once we have a final weight, we take the customer to our computer where we enter their information and the amount of venison they brought us. We then proceed to take their order. Once we know what product the customer is looking for, we go into our freezer and gather the correct number of items and bring them out to the customer. Unfortunately, if you catch us on a day where we do not have the item you are looking for then a return trip would be necessary to get the product you want, or we can work with you to find something we have in stock that you would still enjoy! Once we have your order filled, we will cash you out. Venison swaps are done in “batches”, and you are charged per batch of product that you get. If you get a deer processed here at Miller’s, all specialty items are an additional price and this additional fee is all you pay when you swap meat for specialty products. This is not a cutting or processing fee, because you brought us your own meat. This price comes from the added ingredients to all the specialty items, the vacuum packing of the items, and of course the work it takes to make them. Often times batches of venison product require less product then you will yield, so you would most likely be taking home a higher weight amount of meat that what you brought us. If you are interested in learning more about the products you can get and their prices, click the link below. It will take you to our venison cutting page, where you can find lists of the custom venison products we offer. Only a select few of these products are available for retail purchase. The majority of these products are only available to be made in our custom shop, which means you must bring in meat to swap or have a deer processed here to get them. The venison products we do sell in the store are made with venison we purchase from our suppliers so that we can sell it. The store products are NOT made with any venison that is killed by a customer, and is kept very sperate from the custom shop products.

Even once the swap is finished, the meat brought in by customers does not automatically get made into product. We have one employee that sees every ounce of meat that comes in, inspecting all of it and deciding if it is up to our standard and good enough to be made into our product. Questionable meat gets thrown away, and only good looking venison moves forward in the product making process. We understand that you may take time to perfectly clean your meat to the highest standard you can, and it can be difficult to exchange that for meat that wasn’t cleaned by your own hands. However, we work hard to keep all our product top notch, and make sure we only present you with healthy products that we enjoy without any hesitation. I would like to reiterate one more time just to make sure everything is clear, you may only bring in venison to swap for venison products. This can be venison stew meat, venison roasts, venison steaks, or venison ground meat without additives. We do not provide this service for beef, pork, or chicken. You also do not get the product free of charge because you brought in meat, there is still a price to be paid when you are doing a swap. We really wanted to do this write up before we entered the busiest part of deer season, so that you all can empty your freezers with full understanding of our swap process. If you feel like this blog has caused some confusion surrounding our “venison swaps”, please don’t be afraid to ask us any questions that you have lingering in your mind. You can send us a message on Facebook or Instagram anytime, or give us a call at (315) 376-6253 extension 2. We would be happy to explain the process to you until you are as comfortable as possible. We are wishing each one of you the best of luck this hunting season, and hope you bring your deer to us for processing! We are thankful for our loyal customers, but we get excited to meet new hunters every year. Keep us in mind next time you have a successful hunt!

As usual, I’d like to thank you for reading the blog! As things get busier around the market, keeping up with blog posts will become a challenge. However this still continues to one of my favorite parts of my job, and knowing there are people who love to read what I have to share every week gives me so much motivation. I hope you all have a great day, and an amazing week! Come to read again next week!