Hunting season is still fresh and deer processors are busy

Archery season for deer started in October, but Gun season kicked off November 20

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- The weather is cooling off and while some people are bundling up trying to get inside. Deer hunters are doing everything they can to get outside.  Archery season for deer started in October, but Gun season kicked off November 20, 2021, and the folks who take your kill from the forest to the freezer have seen a big bump in business.

“Last year was super super crazy with COVID and everything I guess everybody was hunting, but this year is looking up to be like the same it’s been pretty wild the first couple of weeks,” said the owner of Prairie Meat Company Chris Herring.

Herring said that in 2020 people had more time on their hands to hunt; meaning a lot of business coming through the door. This year (2021) things have slightly slowed down, but they are expecting to pick up due to price increases on other meats.

“What’s pushed it up this year is beef is over four dollars a pound so people are doing a lot more ground meat and with beef prices being high. The alternative is the best organic meat is a deer,” said Herring.

With temperatures cooling down, Herring expects business to heat up. Some hunters like to take the D-I-Y (do it yourself) approach when it comes to processing deer. The pros said they are always there, and ready to make things a little faster and a lot easier.

“Our techniques have gotten better. We constantly try to get faster and everything.. A couple of techniques we use inside have adapted we get deer in and out a lot quicker than we usually do,” said Fork N Road employee Triston Gardner.

“We make all these different sausages and we skin them and that’s the big thing. You know when you shoot a deer you load it in the truck you pull up to our place and unload it. We do the rest,” said Herring.

Herring and Gardner advise hunters to be observant if they kill a sick deer because they won’t process it.