Margins in selling meat farmgate on a low input system - anyone got figures?

[Tim W]

Been here ----on a farm I ran the livestock on for many years (organic, grass fed etc) we sold lots of meat direct, the profits at the end were minimal
What we did create was;
1) Jobs (sales/delivery etc)
2) More loyal market than the supermarket buyers
3) More resilient market that is less dependant on price fluctuations

You need plenty of time to sell direct and you have to give a very good service to get anywhere as the competition is tough
These days I just sell 1/2 or whole lamb ---much easier and less time consuming. I don't pander to any requests , no special cuts and you collet from me when I say!
Hence I only sell about 100 lambs/year this way

 

[Chasingmytail]

Having done it for a number of years from 2005 - 2009 I know that it was flipping hardwork and ended up freezing so much that we werent shifting the amounts and it was snowballing. We spent a lot on marketing I did a lot of courses on selling and were given financial help from WAG however, the demand locally was a joke. Like I said previously the local organic abattoir has closed down and the nearest would be some distance away meaning before we started we would need to have the sales to support the hours of driving back and for. Then the stress of finding a quality freelance butcher that could cut up professionally as my experience is that they cant do what they say.

I think perhaps supplying direct to a 3rd party organic box scheme or farm drop would be the better option. If there is a butcher that would take a whole beast on the grassfed accreditation even better but I cant convince myself to returning back to the old days of direct sell just sends shivers.

 

[Chasingmytail]

Killing and cutting up charges are often quite expensive and local abattioirs none existant these days

yes, with the ever diminishing small abattoirs I can only see this getting harder and being able to say 'my animals are taken to a local abattoir where there is very little stress' can no longer be said. Our last pigs went to Stroud. But our beef will be classed as Organic in future however finding an organic abattoir close to us is merely a joke. Cinderford was within 50 miles which was ok not great but could be there and back by 10am. There are a few small abattoirs which are ok however the last one ruined my lambs by dropping the fridge temp too quick and the fibers were so tight they have to be cooked for 5 plus hours. You cant have this happening when selling produce.

 

[heritagefarmer]

You can make it work, the figures should stack up and as others have said you can make a decent margin on each animal. I think the idea of using a vending machine to sell meat is a great one as it pretty much does the job of a member of staff and it means you are not tied to being at the farm for any particular time to make sales. Can also be used to keep your egg money safe!

Take a look at the link below

http://www.vendingbyjsr.co.uk/jsr-vending-machines/

If you give them a call I'm sure Stuart will be most helpful and let him know that Oscar put you in touch.

Hope all goes well!

 

[Pasty]

Nice machine. We are looking at an un-manned farm shop and that kind of thing would do the job for the more premium products. Had our egg box done over a couple times this year already which is sad.

 

[nelly55]

Good luck ,my OH ran a farm shop selling only beef until her accident she loved it,still have the fridge trailer and vac pack .
She had it made with a hanging rail inside ,mobile trailer but also a walk in fridge unit.

 

[GTB]

I hate pouring cold water over someone's ideas and enthusiasm but from what I can see selling direct has a very limited market, and if you go down the online 'niche' market you're competing with many, many others who on the whole will have had a head start. I'm certainly not saying it can't be done, and the margin per lamb/pig/steer will obviously be greater but getting the numbers of animals through to make it worthwhile will be very hard if not impossible. We occasionally sell half a lamb or a whole carcass to friends and family and even they complain it's too expensive once you factor in slaughter and butchery costs.