Urgent Warning To MN Deer Hunters! Don’t Do This With Your Deer!

It's the Monday after opening weekend here in Minnesota, and my social media feed was filled with pictures from friends and family who were out in the woods, looking for a new trophy to hang on their wall. Along with those pictures from family and friends came a Farm Direct Minnesota group warning. The warning dealt with how you transport your deer, and avoiding some serious health risks.

The warning that I saw from Farm Direct Minnesota had to deal with transporting your deer. For those fortunate enough to harvest a deer, the weather we had made it a tough task to get that buck or doe to a processor a little bit tougher. The warning I saw had to deal with where you put your deer when you're transporting it with the weather we were seeing. If you weren't careful you might be looking at inedible meat.

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Here's that warning about 'bone sour' and your pickup truck bed.

HUNTERS: Please do not haul your wild game carcasses directly on your pickups bed. All these new, high power engines produce an enormous amount of heat, which is transferred to you floor of your pickup bed, via the exhaust system. The pictures are of 'bone sour' a condition that occurs when the carcass is not allowed to cool down quickly, or when a fresh carcass or quarter is introduced to a heat source. They green in these pictures is the result. It and the tissue surrounding it, are absolutely inedible, there is nothing to do but dispose of it. A pallet, some firewood....etc? Just something to get your harvested animal, be it game or domestic, off the heat generating bed of your pickup.

Bone sour is more frequently seen if you don't field dress your deer before transporting it, but with temps above 50 both on Saturday and Sunday, a quartered piece could have had enough exposure to heat to cause bone sour, depending how long it was in the bed of your truck.

Here's an instance that was photographed in Wisconsin recently.

PetersensHunting.com also indicates that poorly shot animals, that need to be tracked for a long time are also susceptible to getting bone sour.

So what can you do to help prevent bone sour?

Field dress your harvest, and set the carcass on a pallet or something that isn't directly on the truck bed, to create airflow, helping to cool the carcass, keeping your meat safe.

H/T to Farm Direct Minnesota for the idea!