Selling meat

[Richard Devon]

Anyone on here getting small numbers of lambs slaughtered and then selling meat as either a side or whole carcass to local pubs or restaurants as some kind of niche "fresh local produce"?

I'm really interested to know typically what sort of minimum numbers you do to spread the costs and more importantly how you get on with transporting and storing the processed product?
Legally do you have to have refrigerated transport and some kind of on-farm cold store or just time it right and collect/deliver the meat with a car?

 

[Jerry]

I do it. Not big numbers but growing year on year so now 70% of my lamb goes in boxes from about 120 ewes.

I pick up direct from Abbatior where it's cut and packed. Then deliver direct to customer or to chilled courier.

I don't touch meat and trading standards are happy enough.

 

[Chasingmytail]

yes you need temp control all along the chain and records to show youve checked and logged the temp. Environmental health have a fit travelling in car and wont look good delivering to premises. You could use quality cool boxes.

Its not easy, you need a lot of demand to warrant the travelling to the abbattor. Not many restaurants who could accept a whole carcass and would want it cut to spec then you get into the prime cuts. In all the forums Ive been on its the same problem. You would need to agree numbers and payment terms. Pubs usually get meat from the wholesaler at reasonable price I doubt whether you could beat that and pub/rest are good a talking 'local' but they never bother because they think theyll get it cheaper.

1. need to agree numbers and min time frame for order (day before cancel not good)
2. seasonal problems
3. they want to pick prime cuts that are continually same - grading quality essential
4. cash flow risk - terms essential (payment immediate option)
5. they'll play the money game.
6. Finding a quality butcher to do top notch own kill and thats very difficult today.

Option in selling is doing a local week. However again if they want all the cuts needs to be a good eatery to know what to do with what.

There are plenty of people who sell in boxes and many forums/posts on this. Depends on your market and costs. Ive done it and dont want to do it again you need to be passionate sales person and have time to push and push. Also you need so much free time to market yourself and do the calls. There is a big investment in e-commerce, FB, labelling, walk in chiller and sales. I could go on but to do it well you need to butcher on site to spec and really have a side shoot of your business as a meat seller....once you do lamb people want beef...they want burgers, sausages and then bacon.

If you are lucky to live in rural areas where people like to stock the freezer and have good available cash then its a good start. Also to find a good abattoir that deals with butcher without you getting involved is also a bonus.

 

[Richard Devon]

thanks to both of you for your inputs on this. Some good details there.

Its really only come about after the owner of a pub who is big in to the "local" thing asked about it the other evening, before I give any answers I will consider these very valid points.
There's an abattoir up at Ashburton who does the prep, that's the nearest to us, so need to get hold of them and see what sort of cost it would be and lead time.

 

[Greenbeast]

There's an abattoir up at Ashburton who does the prep

to a good enough standard? lots of abbatoirs aren't known for their cutting quality.

We're lucky, we found a really good own kill butcher just down the road from the abbatoir. 45 minutes from us but we drop pigs off monday at one and pick up the meat thursday at the other.

We don't sell a lot of half/whole carcasses, just not enough people interested, not any sustained pub/restaurant orders either, unfortunately. Plenty of private sales, we do well on sausages and bacon (obv doesn't apply to lamb unfortunately), we cater with our own meat at horse/dog/county/christmas shows/fairs and we do parties and weddings with hog roast and premium grill. But we have definitely found people want variety, so we've moved into veal from dairy bull calves (we raise ourselves) and lamb from a neighbour.

It is not easy, my partner was fairly well known already locally (vet), and we've played on that, but we still have to put in the work getting out there and pushing it.

 

[Courier]

If you do consider selling boxed meat by way of the internet then here are a few tips to help you on your way from someone who organised over 2000 turkeys for 22nd December delivery and the only one which went seriously wrong was where the customer put his works address on it and then went on his works do at 11:45 and a colleague put it in the office fridge where it remained until after the New Years holiday, there were a couple of near misses as well but because of allowing an extra day for problems there were no other missed Christmas dinners.

Just use a polystyrene lined box and a fair number of ice packs with produce which is already deep chilled and send on a pre 12:00 service on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. That way if there is a problem it can be chased from 12:05 the day it was due and should get delivered at a second attempt before the goods have been in transit 48 hours.

Double check the address on the package and add a telephone number and if it is at all likely that there will be no one to take delivery personally (that includes a long toilet break) specify a "safe location".

It is also prudent to write the consignment number on the package in thick indelible marker in case the label becomes detached.
Remember that no deliveries will be made on Bank Holidays including Good Friday so before Easter make Tuesday your latest sending day [emoji6]

When using packaging tape use it like string, about twice all the way around the package and stick it to itself and in both directions and don't leave empty room in the box. If the box is too big cut it down from the top corners with a Stanley knife and fold it over before taping it up - might not look pretty but it is effective.

And finally if you are not prepared to drop the packaged up goods onto a concrete floor from a height of a metre then your packaging simply isn't good enough.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

I used to work on a market stall, doing rare breed beef, lamb & pork as vac-packed oven ready cuts and sausages, bacon & burgers.

We also did pork pies.

Whole carcasses went to a good butcher and were collected on a Tuesday for markets on Weds/Thurs/Fri.

Anything that didn't sell within its date was frozen, then dropped with the butcher on a Tuesday to be cooked into the pies.

No raw meat was handled so I didn't need food hygiene paperwork.

We had two big walk in fridges on the farm and a fridge van. I had plug in fridges to sell out of, which needed the temperatures recording every half hour? (IIRC)

As well as the 3 markets a week we did food fairs, game fairs etc all round the country through the Summer.

It was all high end premium quality, with a price to match.

It was all going well until the 2009/2010 recession pinched.

The local Supermarket also put on a free bus from the town centre and the market died overnight, with the town council being powerless.

The key is being able to compete on quality and price, using the USP of local/rare breed/grass fed etc

Our costs were too high, with nothing being sold off the farm and far too much driving about.

 

[Princess Pooper]

yes you need temp control all along the chain and records to show youve checked and logged the temp. Environmental health have a fit travelling in car and wont look good delivering to premises. You could use quality cool boxes.

Its not easy, you need a lot of demand to warrant the travelling to the abbattor. Not many restaurants who could accept a whole carcass and would want it cut to spec then you get into the prime cuts. In all the forums Ive been on its the same problem. You would need to agree numbers and payment terms. Pubs usually get meat from the wholesaler at reasonable price I doubt whether you could beat that and pub/rest are good a talking 'local' but they never bother because they think theyll get it cheaper.

1. need to agree numbers and min time frame for order (day before cancel not good)
2. seasonal problems
3. they want to pick prime cuts that are continually same - grading quality essential
4. cash flow risk - terms essential (payment immediate option)
5. they'll play the money game.
6. Finding a quality butcher to do top notch own kill and thats very difficult today.

Option in selling is doing a local week. However again if they want all the cuts needs to be a good eatery to know what to do with what.

There are plenty of people who sell in boxes and many forums/posts on this. Depends on your market and costs. Ive done it and dont want to do it again you need to be passionate sales person and have time to push and push. Also you need so much free time to market yourself and do the calls. There is a big investment in e-commerce, FB, labelling, walk in chiller and sales. I could go on but to do it well you need to butcher on site to spec and really have a side shoot of your business as a meat seller....once you do lamb people want beef...they want burgers, sausages and then bacon.

If you are lucky to live in rural areas where people like to stock the freezer and have good available cash then its a good start. Also to find a good abattoir that deals with butcher without you getting involved is also a bonus.

Very good post. Might be worth the OP checking - many chefs can butcher a lamb carcass to their own requirements so possibly if they are taking a whole then the abattoir may deliver to them. Many abattoirs deliver to butchers so no real difference other than probably volume. My local pub used to take whole lambs like that, kept the cost down for them and chef enjoyed doing it.

 

[Stuart J]

Hijacking an old thread.

Does it make it easier if you sell it all frozen?
Have it killed and cut and packaged and labelled off farm, and then frozen on farm to sell out of freezers?

 

[Jerry]

Hijacking an old thread.

Does it make it easier if you sell it all frozen?
Have it killed and cut and packaged and labelled off farm, and then frozen on farm to sell out of freezers?

lots more good regs to be involved with if handling meat on site.

all mine is collected from Abbatior cut and labelled and then delivered same day.

 

[Chasingmytail]

You wont sell as much frozen its not visually appealing. The issue is selling in one go and finding enough people. You are better freezing the amounts you cant shift in a day. Bear in mind you need fantastic labeling if selling frozen as they slide off - add that to your costs (super deep freeze adhesive).

 

[borderterribles]

Hijacking an old thread.

Does it make it easier if you sell it all frozen?
Have it killed and cut and packaged and labelled off farm, and then frozen on farm to sell out of freezers?

If you are set up to sell it frozen, then it does make it easier for you. However, we find that the public would much rather buy fresh and freeze it themselves. They will buy frozen, but expect it to be substantially cheaper, which kind of defeats the object of selling direct to maximise your return.

 

[Courier]

But by joining something like

Buy local food buy seasonal food farm shops sustainable food organic food - Big Barn

Find local food from the 6,500 outlets on the BigBarn map. Buy artisan food & drink in the BigBarn MarketPlace. See recipes and videos.

www.bigbarn.co.uk

then you could sell frozen on line and project your upmarket image along with the best of them .

If you do go along those lines then I would recommend looking at

How to get the most out of your Parcel Carrier at busy times - The inside track from the Sameday Specialists -

Here’s the 021 Sameday Tip Sheet to sending parcels with an overnight carrier. Especially useful at busy times, this guide will help you sidestep many common problems encountered by our clients in the past… PLAN...Read more

sameday24-7.co.uk

And maybe give Emma a ring for a bit of info on packaging and frozen “next day” deliveries.

It’s not rocket science but there are a few tips such as allowing for a 24 hour delay and using timed deliveries when approaching weekends or bank holidays.

You can only really offer deliveries on Tues - Wednesday - Thursday on standard next day rates.

 

[steveR]

Hijacking an old thread.

Does it make it easier if you sell it all frozen?
Have it killed and cut and packaged and labelled off farm, and then frozen on farm to sell out of freezers?

Used to kill around 30-35 dexters a year and sell most of the beef direct to the end user in large meat boxes, a 1/4 beast/customer

All meat was hung, cut and vaccy packed by an excellent local butcher. Not in portions but in larger packs, so say, all roast cuts in one, all steaks in another etc etc.

All sold chilled and pulled from his cold room, placed in giant cold boxes and then I delivered to the customers in 3 -4hours, often in and around London area, 3-4 hrs away... ;-)

Froze 1/4 of a beast in individual portions once or twice for long standing customers at their request, but not really an option as freezer safety and monitoring was an issue on a commercial basis I reckoned.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Hijacking an old thread.

Does it make it easier if you sell it all frozen?
Have it killed and cut and packaged and labelled off farm, and then frozen on farm to sell out of freezers?

Much of the sales I did on the market stall were people impulse buying steak/joints for that evening.

Frozen meat would not have had the same appeal.

 

[Courier]

Difficult to create a business plan based on “impulse buying” ?

Ok for a bit of extra pin money....

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Difficult to create a business plan based on “impulse buying” ?

Part of the reason it all stopped.

And people tightened up on their spending. Our luxury prices became unappealing.

£29.99/kg for fillet steak (ten years ago)

 

[Cowcalf]

how long was your beef hung for and in what enviroment

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Just normal aging, no 3 week dry aged USP in those days.

All native purebreeds, which in hindsight made next to no difference to the consumer.

 

[Danllan]

Just normal aging, no 3 week dry aged USP in those days.

All native purebreeds, which in hindsight made next to no difference to the consumer.

No doubting you're right for that market; we sell to people renting holiday lets from us and there's a definite preference for something 'iconic' (meaning a good-looking native breed) over an arbitrary dairy x.