Buying Top quality meat ? why so hard ?

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
on my facebook feed this morning

niche ?

80269280-2356-4670-8F6A-9DFAEB47C418.jpeg
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Yes, niche.
@Chris F would tell you how little it costs to get 30k views, but it’s trivial Ad spend. My local weather guy will get 100k for his morning dog walk/ chat.

I can't imagine many butchers or farm shops will have 30k people walk past there door today .................. and certainly not between tomorrow and December 2nd !

I know how cheap Facebook ads campaigns are as well thank - again another reason why this is a very good business case for livestock farms surely

People are becoming much more connected to food, lockdown has really helped this and should be a boost we welcome and not run away from !
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
I can't imagine many butchers or farm shops will have 30k people walk past there door today .................. and certainly not between tomorrow and December 2nd !

I know how cheap Facebook ads campaigns are as well thank - again another reason why this is a very good business case for livestock farms surely

People are becoming much more connected to food, lockdown has really helped this and should be a boost we welcome and not run away from !

We are embracing it though Clive - and have more demand than supply without resorting to marginal gain gimmicks. The abattoir/ butchers I linked to are struggling to maintain quality against the demands on throughput they have already.

Earlier this year I got a voucher for Facebook advertising so gave them a try. Very targetted and done with care - 1,500 views and only one sale, which I understand to be a pretty good conversion rate. Perhaps you'd get a bit more for a national company, but it's not huge - they may walk past the virtual shop window, but they do it in seconds, and walk on to the cute fluffy cat with the bowtie.
 

Celt83

Member
Livestock Farmer
I can't imagine many butchers or farm shops will have 30k people walk past there door today .................. and certainly not between tomorrow and December 2nd !

I know how cheap Facebook ads campaigns are as well thank - again another reason why this is a very good business case for livestock farms surely

People are becoming much more connected to food, lockdown has really helped this and should be a boost we welcome and not run away from !
I couldn't agree more with you about people's connections with food as I've mentioned a few times in the price tracker thread. Supermarkets have ruined public opinion of what meat should look like and taste like. Someone put a photo up of a farm shop with dark well aged beef in the chillers, that's what beef should look like not this bright red two week hanged crap that you see in the supermarkets!

I'm sure every livestock farmer knows the true value of quality meat hence why we are doing our best to supply best quality cattle to the processors. But I think you are preaching to the wrong crowd.

You put a photo up of the brisket you had bought, what made me smile was the breed that was on the label, Longhorn. That is a grass fed, slow maturing native breed that when fed and hung properly cant get better flavour. I must add the same goes for the Hereford, Angus, Shorthorn etc.

Unfortunately the national beef association is trying its best to ruin this market and could make the British beef industry extinct! With the powers of TFF could this be a great opportunity for us to contact them and show what producers/consumers want? Possibly shape the future for madern beef production to quality and taste rather than factory tasteless farming?
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
are embracing it though Clive - and have more demand than supply without resorting to marginal gain gimmicks. The abattoir/ butchers I linked to are struggling to maintain quality against the demands on throughput they have already.
Just been on the phone to our local slaughter house to book in lambs and a Bullock and they are that busy they couldn't give us a date, not had that before.
They do mainly killing/cutting for freezer and killing for butchers.
Obviously nobody bothering with this sort of thing
 

JeepJeep

Member
Trade
Local Butchers here doing better than ever since all this started. Took more staff on and some things you have to preorder as they are simply that busy... day or 2's heads-up and he'll see you right The Large Xmas orders have already started he was saying as well.

Massive demand

I can ask for an untrimmed rump or sirloin cap in English or Welsh as well...
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
Just been on the phone to our local slaughter house to book in lambs and a Bullock and they are that busy they couldn't give us a date, not had that before.
They do mainly killing/cutting for freezer and killing for butchers.
Obviously nobody bothering with this sort of thing

I've had it a few times this year. It doesn't make things very easy, does it?
 

tepapa

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Wales
Just been on the phone to our local slaughter house to book in lambs and a Bullock and they are that busy they couldn't give us a date, not had that before.
They do mainly killing/cutting for freezer and killing for butchers.
Obviously nobody bothering with this sort of thing
Your lucky to have a local slaughter house. Ours shut last year and the next closest is 20+miles away. Point being the EU/government whoever have managed to close almost all the small independent abbatoirs that were attached to butchers shops once upon a time.
Thanks to covid in 2020 Clive has found the enjoyment of real food but is shocked to find that it's supply has been killed off over the last couple of decades as farmers have bred to supermarket spec and the supermarkets and red tape has closed the abbatoirs.
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
I can't imagine many butchers or farm shops will have 30k people walk past there door today .................. and certainly not between tomorrow and December 2nd !

I know how cheap Facebook ads campaigns are as well thank - again another reason why this is a very good business case for livestock farms surely

People are becoming much more connected to food, lockdown has really helped this and should be a boost we welcome and not run away from !

Livestock farmers rear livestock. Butchers sell meat. For a livestock farmer to tap into the opportunity you suggest, he'd need to learn a whole new set of skills, and invest in setting up a butchery.

It'd make very little difference to how he reared his stock.

You are confusing rearing cattle and selling meat. Two entirely different things.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Your lucky to have a local slaughter house. Ours shut last year and the next closest is 20+miles away. Point being the EU/government whoever have managed to close almost all the small independent abbatoirs that were attached to butchers shops once upon a time.
Thanks to covid in 2020 Clive has found the enjoyment of real food but is shocked to find that it's supply has been killed off over the last couple of decades as farmers have bred to supermarket spec and the red tape has closed the abbatoirs.
Yes we are very lucky and they do a very good job, not really complaining just saying, best of luck to them hope they are doing well
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
Your lucky to have a local slaughter house. Ours shut last year and the next closest is 20+miles away. Point being the EU/government whoever have managed to close almost all the small independent abbatoirs that were attached to butchers shops once upon a time.
Thanks to covid in 2020 Clive has found the enjoyment of real food but is shocked to find that it's supply has been killed off over the last couple of decades as farmers have bred to supermarket spec and the supermarkets and red tape has closed the abbatoirs.

Be grateful for what you have. "20+miles away" is still local. @davieh3350 had a 100+ mile trip to get his done, and I can't imagine what it would be like for those on the Orkneys.
 

honeyend

Member
I tried. The local butchers don't have offal that comes back because they don't buy whole carcasses. One online butcher told me no when I asked (see question 4 in my first post) and another that does stock offal etc is apparently so inundated with requests that I have to subscribe to an email list and they'll notify me when particular organs are in stock. That's fine but I have to order £75 worth of meat at a time, and it's practically impossible to get, say, a heart and a cheek in the same order. So I'd have to buy £75 worth when the cheeks are in stock, and then another £75 a week later when they have heart. It can be done, but it's pushing me well beyond the realm of a typical retail customer. And the fact that the place that sells the stuff is overwhelmed with orders makes me wonder why other websites already catering to this niche market won't sell offal. Are the regulations really that difficult to navigate? Are they more stringent for offal?
You need to find a farmer or small holder that sells their own meat. When it's taken in depending on the animal you specify what cuts you want, and what you want back, depending on where its killed. Some of the bigger producers may have their own butchery, and shop. There are still some butchers that have their own abattoir, so getting offal should be easier from them.
Join your nearest smallholders FB group with animals and the conversation about who does it best usually come up, that will also give you a lead as to who will be selling what and when. I haven't the freezer space so what I want to sell has to be gone on the day I collect from the butchers.
There are also some co-operatives where you buy a share in an animal, and share in costs in it rearing, it depends on how much time you have to commit.
 
Last edited:

Tim G

Member
Livestock Farmer
When we started direct selling beef nearly 15 years ago now, we found that no one wanted offal and to a certain extent the slow cooking cuts weren't wanted either, despite us selling as 1/8 of an animal boxes. We (mainly Mrs G) developed a side line making pies with the unwanted beef which has grown well. We now direct sell all our produce but the products that weren't wanted then are now much more in demand. We've converted a small building into a basic shop and one thing that really pleases me is that the first things to sell from an animal is usually the offal. Heart, oxtail, liver, kidneys, tongue even bones are in demand.
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
When we started direct selling beef nearly 15 years ago now, we found that no one wanted offal and to a certain extent the slow cooking cuts weren't wanted either, despite us selling as 1/8 of an animal boxes. We (mainly Mrs G) developed a side line making pies with the unwanted beef which has grown well. We now direct sell all our produce but the products that weren't wanted then are now much more in demand. We've converted a small building into a basic shop and one thing that really pleases me is that the first things to sell from an animal is usually the offal. Heart, oxtail, liver, kidneys, tongue even bones are in demand.
I'd take one of Mrs G's pies any day of the week :love::love::love:
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
We are embracing it though Clive - and have more demand than supply without resorting to marginal gain gimmicks. The abattoir/ butchers I linked to are struggling to maintain quality against the demands on throughput they have already.

Earlier this year I got a voucher for Facebook advertising so gave them a try. Very targetted and done with care - 1,500 views and only one sale, which I understand to be a pretty good conversion rate. Perhaps you'd get a bit more for a national company, but it's not huge - they may walk past the virtual shop window, but they do it in seconds, and walk on to the cute fluffy cat with the bowtie.


you need to be national if using the internet to sell or set things up in a VERY specifically geographically targeted way but yes all digital advertising is a numbers game
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I couldn't agree more with you about people's connections with food as I've mentioned a few times in the price tracker thread. Supermarkets have ruined public opinion of what meat should look like and taste like. Someone put a photo up of a farm shop with dark well aged beef in the chillers, that's what beef should look like not this bright red two week hanged crap that you see in the supermarkets!

I'm sure every livestock farmer knows the true value of quality meat hence why we are doing our best to supply best quality cattle to the processors. But I think you are preaching to the wrong crowd.

You put a photo up of the brisket you had bought, what made me smile was the breed that was on the label, Longhorn. That is a grass fed, slow maturing native breed that when fed and hung properly cant get better flavour. I must add the same goes for the Hereford, Angus, Shorthorn etc.

Unfortunately the national beef association is trying its best to ruin this market and could make the British beef industry extinct! With the powers of TFF could this be a great opportunity for us to contact them and show what producers/consumers want? Possibly shape the future for madern beef production to quality and taste rather than factory tasteless farming?


well, said - and look how quickly this thread clearly googled and prompted a none farming new members a consumer who was finding getting what they wanted hard to ask questions? how many more such views will it have had by others probably not so keen to join TFF and post?
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Livestock farmers rear livestock. Butchers sell meat. For a livestock farmer to tap into the opportunity you suggest, he'd need to learn a whole new set of skills, and invest in setting up a butchery.

It'd make very little difference to how he reared his stock.

You are confusing rearing cattle and selling meat. Two entirely different things.

ever heard the phrase "integrated supply chain" It's in both butchers and livestock farmers to work together and supply market needs as best as they can surely? there is evidence on this thread that although some more switched on farmers and butchers are doing so there are many that are not

Supermarkets and (none carcass retail) has dumbed down meat to something really unexciting, is this maybe why people were increasingly beginning to move away from eating it ?

There has probably never been a better moment than right now to address and fix this for a better long term future? that is ALL I'm suggesting
 

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