They damage saplings and strip vegetation that could provide habitat for farmland birds, hazel dormice and other species. Other problems include crop damage and car crashes.<\/p>\n
Although there are organised culls, McCauley said the \u201cBambi effect\u201d can cause negative views of those who shoot deer to check their numbers. The focus needed to shift from culling to producing food, he said. <\/p>\n
McCauley, who helped build the Trussell Trust into the UK\u2019s largest food bank, said: \u201cI reckon that if we could get the universities in the UK, just the universities<\/a>, to be buying venison, we will have solved the venison problem because there\u2019s that many universities.\u201d He is talking to Exeter University and the University Caterers Organisation, a nationwide procurement group.<\/p>\n In a research trial at Plumpton College, an agricultural college in East Sussex, students were served venison burgers, bolognese and fajitas alongside regular dishes. While 43 per cent had never tried venison before, 97 per cent said they would eat it again, found Georgina Cockett from Sussex Grazed, a meat box scheme. <\/p>\n She has been working with landowners and deer stalkers, including a \u201chairdresser by day and deer stalker by night\u201d, to control deer numbers, butcher the carcasses and sell the cuts in Sussex. Last year they killed 16 animals, resulting in 62 boxes of venison cuts sold for \u00a365 each. <\/p>\n She said. \u201cPeople say: \u2018I\u2019ve had venison before and I absolutely didn\u2019t like it. It tasted too gamey.\u2019 But then when you break down why they have these misconceptions, it\u2019s often they had it a very long time ago and it was a different breed of deer.\u201d <\/p>\n McCauley said cullers often sabotaged efforts to persuade people to eat more venison by posting photographs of carcasses on social media rather than \u201cnice\u201d shots of venison cuts. The distribution network often \u201ccrashes\u201d because of the seasonal surges of the culls, and Cockett said butchers may also need to learn new skills to turn carcasses into cuts.<\/p>\n Jodie Simpson is a deer stalker working with Sussex Grazed<\/p>\n New schemes culling deer for venison are starting this year in Wiltshire, Suffolk, Devon and Cumbria. A group of farms in Wiltshire covering an area the size of the Isle of Wight hope to reduce high deer numbers and supply the resulting venison to schools and hospitals.<\/p>\n One recent driver of a new appetite for venison is the price of beef, which has risen by 27 per cent<\/a>. Another is the need for food banks<\/a> to get a cheap source of protein. <\/p>\n![\"Freshly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/103338f9-c13d-45b3-ad4a-87efcddaca89.jpg\")
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