DeerTrack

Did I get MY meat? Did I get All of my meat? These are the 2 biggest questions that hunters most frequently ask their deer processer. And they should with all of the horror stories that we have heard from hunters! DeerDash has engineered a clever way to track deer from the beginning to the end of the butchering process, giving hunters the definitive answer to these 2 questions: YES and YES! Introducing DeerTrack custom butchering software by DeerDash.

 

We're not saying that other processors aren't doing their best. They have manual paper tracking systems in place that work. But when the deer come flooding in by the hundreds on November 15, paper tracking can lead to more errors. The chaos in a butcher shop following opening day is a sight to behold. It's no wonder that hunters question whether they are getting ALL of THEIR meat! The paper tags on the deer can fall off, attach themselves to a neighboring carcass, or simply be misread. The physical cutting instructions slips can be lost or destroyed. And careless packagers can assign meat to the wrong basket. These are common mistakes for even the most conscientious butchering crew with the best intentions, not to mention that some butchers are neither conscientious nor well-intentioned.

 

We have heard the hunters' fears about bringing their deer to the local butcher. DeerTrack software is the answer they have been looking for. DeerDash has not reinvented the wheel, but maybe we have found a way to make it drive smoother. Our aim is to make it more obvious to hunters by electronically tracking everything about their deer throughout the butchering process: you are getting ALL of YOUR meat.

 

The process begins with a permanently attached QR code, which stays with the deer for the entire journey: from the hang time in the cooler, to the butcher's table, to the packing line, and finally into the customer's bag. This QR code contains all of the customers information and cutting instructions, which occurs immediately when the customer fills out their online form. Each time the deer is sent to the next process, the QR code is scanned, retrieving instructions and tracking important information. In the last steps of the packaging process, the QR code creates a unique stickered label for every single package, identifying the customer, the product, and the weight. Put your minds at ease, hunters! YES, you are getting ALL of YOUR deer!

 

The power of accurately tracking information is in the data afterward. With every ounce of meat accounted, a report can be generated, detailing the totals for a customer's meat as well as the waste. By comparing the percentages of good meat and waste product, the hunter can see how diligently the deer was processed. Which answers the next question about whether or not a customer is getting ALL of their meat. There may not be an entirely definitive answer to this unless the hunter is standing over the butcher's shoulder, but DeerTrack takes a step in the right direction by accounting for every ounce of the deer, and providing insights to the hunter about where every ounce went.

 

There are some important points to be made regarding how much meat a deer can yield. For example, getting every scrap of meat from your deer may not be practical or even desirable. The gamey taste that turns off some people to venison comes mostly from the fat. And sinews and silver skin can give venison an undesirable chewy texture. High quality venison is produced by getting rid of this fat and sinew. One of the DeerDash trademarks is the absence of fat and sinew in the finished product. But when venison is processed to the highest standard, there is a little more waste. Therefore it would be a big error to assume that more meat equals a better butchering job. We have heard the wild stories about hunters getting 75 pounds of meat from a 100 pound deer. Folks, that is NOT a situation where you are getting back YOUR deer!

 

There may not be an entirely accurate way to calculate whether a butcher got every ounce of meat, but DeerTrack software runs a report to compare the yield percentage to the average yield percentage on other deer, which can help score the butchers performance. An abnormally low yield percentage may indicate that the butcher did a poor job, or maybe meat was lost because the deer was not properly cared for, or perhaps the deer was wounded. DeerTrack software aims to pinpoint these causes and report them to the hunter.

 

For example, portions of the meat can be severely damaged with bruising and clotting from bullet wounds or vehicle collisions. While many hunters are completely unaware of the damage their bullet has done to the meat, it becomes evident when the skin comes off and the meat is opened up. It's not unusual for a high-energy bullet to destroy one or both shoulders as it dumps hundreds or thousands of foot-pounds of energy into the deer, sending bullet and bone shrapnel through the meat, bruising it, and ultimately making it inedible. To account for this and other factors, DeerTrack software allows the butcher to easily record notes about damaged meat with just a few clicks of the scanner. "Why didn't I get hardly any meat back?", some hunters wonder. Now the butcher has a mathematically accurate answer, recorded in the final report: because portions of the deer were damaged with shot placement or some other factor; but indeed we gave you ALL of the meat we could salvage.

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​DeerDash welcomes you to visit our facility and see the process in action. Cutting, packaging, and now scanning QR codes in order to guarantee that every hunter is getting ALL of THEIR meat from every deer.

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Happy Hunting from the DeerDash team! We look forward to seeing you this year!