Selling my own meat
- Thread starter butlerx09
- Start date
Woolless
Member
- Location
- Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
Slaughtered in a licenced abattoir and cut in a licenced cutting plant or butchers.
Old Boar
Member
- Location
- West Wales
As above, and packed in a place with a licence, and the labels need to conform to regs (what it is, where it is from, the weight, price per kg, price per pack). If you are delivering it, you really should be able to prove you kept it below a certain temp (different places have different temps, but below 7 degrees is common). So a chiller van or lots of ice packs.
You should really have a HACCP too - to cover yourself if things go wrong. Templates available on line.
You should really have a HACCP too - to cover yourself if things go wrong. Templates available on line.
Yes I use poly boxes with chill packs and deliver direct from Abbatior so in effect don’t touch the meat. Checked with trading standards and they were fine with that.
Poly boxes and chill packs are also fine to ship with a courier.
It’s getting to the stage that next year this won’t work for me as volume increases so I will be exploring how I can store on farm for up to 48 hours to help with deliveries.
Just off to Abbatior with a few more lambs in fact.
Oh, make sure you have a Facebook presence for your sales and ideal a half decent website.
But expect Agro from aggressive rabid vegans!!
Search foe Exe Valley Lamb to see what I’ve done.
http://exevalleylamb.co.uk/
But expect Agro from aggressive rabid vegans!!
Search foe Exe Valley Lamb to see what I’ve done.
http://exevalleylamb.co.uk/
Pieces_of_Eight
Member
Food Hygiene Certificate?
Food hygiene rating for premises (includes mobile premises)?
Food hygiene rating for premises (includes mobile premises)?
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
Can you take the meat home and sell direct out the freezer without a horde of certificates?
Pieces_of_Eight
Member
Food hygiene cert is half a day. Just common sense stuff.
Davey
Member
- Location
- Derbyshire
In a word no.
We have a clean room (walls, floors easily disinfected, fly zapper and hand wash sink) all certified by food standards agency. You also need to log things like fridge temps and cleaning regimes.
All easy stuff just phone your local inspector and they'll talk you through it.
- Location
- Near Colchester
You need customers more than anything.
Lambs are hardly worth the bother for us but we sell them as we do pork,bacon, beef, chickens, eggs and pies.
Mutton is better we have found.
Lambs are hardly worth the bother for us but we sell them as we do pork,bacon, beef, chickens, eggs and pies.
Mutton is better we have found.
Chasingmytail
Member
- Location
- Newport, SE Wales
You need a fridge/freezer though. If you are collecting meat from the butcher you really need to have controlled environment. Years ago we used to chuck it into the back of the estate but as time went on we got bigger we had to get a refrigerated van (expense).
If you are not processing or touching the meat you dont need all the food standard stuff as this is for packaging yourself. A kitchen is fine. Again if you are selling individual cuts by weight you need trading standards to check the scales but in a box scheme you do not. You do need a food hygiene cert which you can get on the net for a few pounds.
The biggest problems is finding your customers and shifting the meat quick - advice: Take a deposit as people talk shite. Had so many people say we'll have it then never turn up or say their freezer is full. You can take BACS payment of say £10. Had an idiot say he would have half a pig. Had it in the walk in fridge for 2 days. ignored my calls and then blanked us. Some freaks of people. Then the people who complain about the cost - this is why you take the orders, you get a deposit, ditch the moaners.
Adhoc box animals is good but dont forget to cost it properly. Your time, transport to and from the abattoir and the butchers, the box, the time marketing. Certain people will be through in asking questions like organic, high welfare etc
Bear in mind if people pick the meat up they may take up a lot of your time, some like to chat, some want to see your farm. Again dropping off is time consuming. You need to have some good time keeping and excuses to move quick.
I have done everything here and it did become a nightmare after a while. The butchery was poor around here finding quality butchery for home kill is not easy. The butchers hung the beef wrong and it got mouldy, they were slap dash with labelling. Bags are not good either, dripping blood is not acceptable, vacpac is essential but problematic with bone in. To do it right you need the chain to be good throughout. The produce has to be good and consistent.
For small amounts of orders I would check the profit margin to see whether it is worth the effort.
If you are not processing or touching the meat you dont need all the food standard stuff as this is for packaging yourself. A kitchen is fine. Again if you are selling individual cuts by weight you need trading standards to check the scales but in a box scheme you do not. You do need a food hygiene cert which you can get on the net for a few pounds.
The biggest problems is finding your customers and shifting the meat quick - advice: Take a deposit as people talk shite. Had so many people say we'll have it then never turn up or say their freezer is full. You can take BACS payment of say £10. Had an idiot say he would have half a pig. Had it in the walk in fridge for 2 days. ignored my calls and then blanked us. Some freaks of people. Then the people who complain about the cost - this is why you take the orders, you get a deposit, ditch the moaners.
Adhoc box animals is good but dont forget to cost it properly. Your time, transport to and from the abattoir and the butchers, the box, the time marketing. Certain people will be through in asking questions like organic, high welfare etc
Bear in mind if people pick the meat up they may take up a lot of your time, some like to chat, some want to see your farm. Again dropping off is time consuming. You need to have some good time keeping and excuses to move quick.
I have done everything here and it did become a nightmare after a while. The butchery was poor around here finding quality butchery for home kill is not easy. The butchers hung the beef wrong and it got mouldy, they were slap dash with labelling. Bags are not good either, dripping blood is not acceptable, vacpac is essential but problematic with bone in. To do it right you need the chain to be good throughout. The produce has to be good and consistent.
For small amounts of orders I would check the profit margin to see whether it is worth the effort.
Chasingmytail
Member
- Location
- Newport, SE Wales
I picked up a used walk in fridge off ebay for a good price but price in constructing it and having the refrigeration unit checked over. Needs interior light. Prev to this we had a shipping container which had been converted to fridge and freezer. Picked up and had livery on a refrigerated van which worked well but was used as an everyday vehicle due to costs. Price in yearly maintenance of the cooler.
Netherfield
Member
- Location
- West Yorkshire
@Chasingmytail has covered a lot of it, but finding good slaughtering and butchering facities is hard.
Recently heard that one abbatoir in Lancashire four slaughtermen failed to turn up for work on one particular day,so can't kill your cattle today, some rumps bought from same place were badly slashed,can't find good butchering staff was the answer to that one.
Another Abattoir in Yorkshire, usual day for pigs is thursday, have to fill in forms online the previous day, ring slaughter house to book pigs in, boss says he can't handle them because two men have handed in their notice, chap pleads because they are the last two of a batch and the food has run out and of course he's filled in the forms. Boss relents and says he can slaughter them but can't deliver them back before next Tuesday. That was all in a ten day period.
No British people seem to want slaughtering work anymore,and I must admit it's not a very pleasant job to do, a lot of foreign workers have been doing the job but have given up since the Brexit decision, I'm told.
Recently heard that one abbatoir in Lancashire four slaughtermen failed to turn up for work on one particular day,so can't kill your cattle today, some rumps bought from same place were badly slashed,can't find good butchering staff was the answer to that one.
Another Abattoir in Yorkshire, usual day for pigs is thursday, have to fill in forms online the previous day, ring slaughter house to book pigs in, boss says he can't handle them because two men have handed in their notice, chap pleads because they are the last two of a batch and the food has run out and of course he's filled in the forms. Boss relents and says he can slaughter them but can't deliver them back before next Tuesday. That was all in a ten day period.
No British people seem to want slaughtering work anymore,and I must admit it's not a very pleasant job to do, a lot of foreign workers have been doing the job but have given up since the Brexit decision, I'm told.
Chasingmytail
Member
- Location
- Newport, SE Wales
I never found it easy and when we did it full scale we plummeted into massive debt. The overheads are high and unless you are lucky to have refrigeration and a cutting room and someone taking orders and overseeing emails/text/phonecalls the additional costs in manpower are not worth it. There are good grants if you can get them. At the time we had just one small child and spent my evening delivering it was really hard balancing home/farm/meat. I think you are better staying small than getting carried away. Before you know it you are doing beef, pork and then turkeys. It was physically demanding, exhausting and in the end I was relieved to walk away from it all. The OH keeps banging on about doing beef direct I said no way. I'll put one in our freezer but never go down this route again. I have fun now making my own sausages, bacon etc and home savings with having meat in the freezer.
However I would consider doing lambs on adhoc basis under the radar that is
However I would consider doing lambs on adhoc basis under the radar that is
Goatherderess
Member
- Location
- North Dorset
I do about 60 goat kids a year, all Sept-Jan. I try and get online orders for half and whole, deposit paid at ordering and balance a week before delivery with butchery instructions. I sent off 4 boxes today which took me a good hour to pack and then take 5 miles to the courier. Customers collect from me too and do like a wander round to see the goats, chat etc. But that's what I enjoy doing so it's fine! Getting orders is hard, you need to go on and on with social media, getting local friends to order etc and I definitely could do better.
romneymarsh
Member
- Location
- Romney Marsh
Lots of wise words here.
If you can make it work good luck to you.
I know many more who have tried and given up than those still going and as others have said it's controlling costs and 'selling ' that have contributed to giving it up.
In the instances where it has worked there has been surplus manpower in the business needing something to do !
If you can make it work good luck to you.
I know many more who have tried and given up than those still going and as others have said it's controlling costs and 'selling ' that have contributed to giving it up.
In the instances where it has worked there has been surplus manpower in the business needing something to do !
Last edited:
- Location
- Near Colchester
I so agree with everything that has been said in this and your above posts, I don't do the actual meat selling myself but my wife is kept jolly busy doing it and I am not sure we could continue if she didn't want to put all the work in despite having all the stock on the farm that the shop needs.
We too have talked about getting bigger, we employ one or two part time at present but you need a frighteningly high turnover to support one meat worker - all those butchers shops in the towns haven't shut on a whim, our only advantage is traceabilty allowing a premium and general lack of business rates.
We would close in a week if there were business rates applied.
It was already broken.
Member
- Location
- South Norfolk
We tried and gave up 20 years ago.
Customers think you are Tesco, order and not pick up, change orders, phone up at 11 at night, can't understand why its not cheaper than Tesco because you haven't got their overheads.
If you find a good butcher then keep them close. We had pigs done once where the meat was rancid when it was picked up, must have been left out. Sent 6 lambs to another who said he had been broken into and 4 lambs were stolen and the other 2 had been dragged outside into the yard but he was sure some of it would be OK!
Taking lambs to the market and getting a cheque a week later seemed so easy after all that.
I think you have to be a certain sort of person to deal with the British public. If you can put up with it then I'm sure there is money to be made.
Customers think you are Tesco, order and not pick up, change orders, phone up at 11 at night, can't understand why its not cheaper than Tesco because you haven't got their overheads.
If you find a good butcher then keep them close. We had pigs done once where the meat was rancid when it was picked up, must have been left out. Sent 6 lambs to another who said he had been broken into and 4 lambs were stolen and the other 2 had been dragged outside into the yard but he was sure some of it would be OK!
Taking lambs to the market and getting a cheque a week later seemed so easy after all that.
I think you have to be a certain sort of person to deal with the British public. If you can put up with it then I'm sure there is money to be made.