Boxed lamb

beardface

Member
Location
East Yorkshire
Been thinking about doing some boxed lamb for friends and seeing where it leads from there.

Thing is most on here quote 130-140 for a whole lamb. If you take average p/kg on supermarket shelves at £10 that makes a standard 19kg carcass whole at £190 in the same cuts as supermarket. Are we really being so naive as to sell a local, traceable product below market value on the perception that the customer will just go to supermarket if we charge to much?
 

Agrivator

Member
But customers only buy a leg or a few chops at a supermarket or butcher, And those retailers have to build a shop, pay staff and all the other costs including business rates. And they don't get a Single Farm Payment.
A farmer selling a few whole lambs direct only has a bit of extra diesel or petrol invested. And some of your customers might even pay cash.
 
Sad but generally true. One leg of a lamb bought at 30 when they want it, then at 30 again 4 months later is far cheaper than buying 2 legs up front at 40 if that makes sense. Also this day and age freezer space doesn't help, most of us farmers have a chest freezer, I bet very few of jo public do, don't like their few shelves filled in an upright, if you point out you actually don't get a that much lamb and store it easily, it then isn't a great sales pitch. Best bet is to push for sharing a lamb between friends and family, used to do a fair few for family and friends and villagers and is very viable, but im pushed on time so wasn't keen to push any further, but would encourage to those that can
 

Martyn

Member
Location
South west
By the time you have organised everthing like killing dates tying up with peoples freezer space etc we found you want around £160 for 20-22kg lamb. we do some it works well with keeping neighbours connected with farming etc.
 

GreenerGrass

Member
Location
Wilts
We do it and prefer to know where our lambs go and choose which abbatoir. We get great feedback from customers. It’s esp useful if you have something unusual.

19kg carcass doesn’t equal 19kg supermarket cuts. Customer also has cuts they may not otherwise buy. Charge as much as you can though :D
 

AJR75

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Agree with @Martyn. I do a handful most years, mainly now for people that have had them off me for the last few years. Have found that although people like the idea of boxed, local lamb when it comes to it there are an awful lot of messers out there. Let downs, mind changers and people who in spite of being given plenty of notice about collection/ delivery dates suddenly find it inconvenient to have it "that day" and the inevitable "can you freeze it for me" invariably follows, I look at it as a useful extra few £££ but wouldn't want to build a business on it.
 
Good luck if you can make it properly work and make money. Anything which encourages people to eat more lamb can only be good. But the list of people who have tried and given up is far longer than those who have made a success of it.
 

Tim W

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
It's not all about the price you get ----one of the other advantages of selling direct is that you develop a loyal customer base ----if you charge £150/lamb they will pay that all year round unlike the marts/processors who will pay what they have to
't ain't easy , in truth to do it well is an extra job
 
Ive not done lamb, but have done beef and pork. It's hard work, you're the one who has to cold call people all the time, the regular buyers mostly say yes (a lot of them jump at the chance) but they very rarely approach you for more. You start feeling like you're harassing them.

Edit.. It doesn't help that the nearest slaughter house is a 130 mile round trip, it's to close I believe... I use the one that's a 150 mile round trip but doesn't do sheep, so I'd need to go on a 220 mile round trip if I was to head north or I think down to St. Andrews which would be a nightmare from here if I wanted a sheep killed.(n)
 
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Ive not done lamb, but have done beef and pork. It's hard work, you're the one who has to cold call people all the time, the regular buyers mostly say yes (a lot of them jump at the chance) but they very rarely approach you for more. You start feeling like you're harassing them.

Thats how we felt when we sold pork, like you're harassing them, almost that they were doing you a favour by taking it off you hands. (We assumed we were just not good salespeople, there's more to marketing than you think!) The logistics are quite full on; 6 half-a-pigs means 6 different people's freezer space to coordinate, 6 lots of people available for a delivery. You often end up freezing down for people.
 

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