Author Topic: christmas meat boxes (Read 2617 times)

kev meaney · « **on:** September 22, 2015, 09:56:38 pm »

Hi

I've been working in agriculture since I left school 14 years ago. This year I took on a smallholding and 17 pigs, while I have no worries about the stockmanship side of it I would like to have the pigs butchered and sell the pork in meat packs leading up to Christmas, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it. Also how to price the product and the logistics behind it all.

Any advice would be very much appreciated, thanks

heyhay1984 · « **Reply #1 on:** September 23, 2015, 09:03:47 pm »

Depends if you want to sell direct or not, 17 pigs us going to need a hell of a lot of customers to be found from scratch in time for Christmas (though I'm guessing you'll want to retain some pigs?). Have a search of the forum for threads about selling direct as there is a certain amount of red tape, especially once you get past selling to 'friends and family' stage.

How old are the pigs you have in mind and what breed? That'll have a bearing on if they will be ready to slaughter at the right time, also have in mind that some places won't do private kills in the run up to Christmas (though ours is a small operation that also does our cutting and I think this is more the reason they want to keep it to just their own work in December, it's completely understandable!).

For Christmas boxes you will almost certainly want sausages, ham and bacon so will need to make sure you have time to produce this as curing takes more time than picking the meat up jointed. We pay a flat fee of £60 kill and cut per pig which includes a couple of bags of sausages from the trimmings, any curing or vast amount of sausages costs more on top.

Not trying to be negative but thought worth pointing these things out, it's nearly October already so you'll need to get cracking but if you can get everything in order you and your customers should be enjoying some fantastic pork for Christmas!

benkt · « **Reply #2 on:** September 24, 2015, 11:12:49 am »

We always struggle to get any pigs killed and/or cut from late Nov to early Dec as abattoirs and butchers are always full. Now we kill our last pigs of the year in October and leave a gap till January when we can get things done again. It means we miss the Christmas window, but I'm so busy with geese and turkeys then its not really a problem. So top priority should be to get yours booked in now if you can!
If you are going to sell the boxes fresh (un-frozen) do think carefully about timings as bacon takes a week or so to do, but a large Christmas ham can easily take two or three weeks. If you're trying to get all this off one pig it'll be a logistical challenge to say the least!

Bionic · « **Reply #3 on:** September 24, 2015, 01:32:17 pm »

I tried to get my pigs killed and cut in early Oct giving the abattoir just over 3 weeks notice. They were already fully booked so I have to wait 6 weeks instead of 3.
Just agreeing with the others that if you want them ready for christmas then you probably have to book them in now.

greenbeast · « **Reply #4 on:** September 24, 2015, 02:29:32 pm »

You'll need to get cracking. We started a pig farm this year, first month of selling meat was August, we have booked our christmas pigs in with the abbatoir and butcher already.
We already have a small but growing customer base and we don't even plan on selling 17 pigs, more like 10.