The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: The Mobile Butcher on February 11, 2011, 05:57:49 pm

Title: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: The Mobile Butcher on February 11, 2011, 05:57:49 pm
I recently closed down my butcher business (near Whitby North Yorkshire)
  I am offering my 27 years experience to help out any people in my area (45 mile radius) to assist, advise or butcher their animals on their smallholding. I will come out to you and butcher your cattle sheep or pigs. I have all the equipment. so if you need a hand I hope I can be of service.
Please Email me for more details and prices.
[email protected]
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: andywalt on February 11, 2011, 10:54:03 pm
I wish you were in kent....can they still sell there meat to the public if you butcher on there land?

Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: The Mobile Butcher on February 11, 2011, 11:30:40 pm
The last time I checked the rules ,(this is for on farm slaughter) you are supposed to eat the meat yourself and not sell it on to the public.
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: The Mobile Butcher on February 12, 2011, 09:20:12 am
just to add to my last post, If your animals are slaughtered in the Abattoir, I am fairly certain you can have them butchered on yr smallholding and you can sell the butchered meat to the public.
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: chickenfeed on February 12, 2011, 10:28:49 am
i am not 100% sre that is the case i always thought the animal had to be killed and cut on site ie a slaughterhouse/cutting plant, thats what we were told when looking into other butchers cutting for us.
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: robert waddell on February 12, 2011, 10:32:30 am
27yrs experiance and you are giving false hope on this public forum
first the carcase has to transported in refrigerated van/container
second the carcase has to be butchered on licenced premises
that is the rules in scotland  to enable you to sell to the public
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: JulieS on February 12, 2011, 11:57:01 am
You can use an abattoir to kill only and then have the carcass transported back to your smallholding.  Then you can butcher yourself, or get someone to help you, but as I understand it you cannot then sell the meat onto other people.  It has to be for your own use.

You can use an abattoir and then have carcass transported to a licensed butchers who can cut and pack your produce for you to sell.  Or you can use the cutting room at your abattoir.

Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: waterhouse on February 12, 2011, 05:44:53 pm
I've  been wading through the regulations - OH is going to a EBLEX evening on meat boxes soon - and it's all rather complicated.  The FSA website has been written in a friendly style which completely fails to explain the total horridnous of the underlying EU and Westminster legislation.  But there seems to be an exemption in 852/2004 (don't) which goes

the direct supply, by the producer, of small quantities of primary products to the final consumer or to local retail establishments directly supplying the final consumer;

Meat you produce yourself is a primary product.  I haven't got to the bottom of butchery services however
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: robert waddell on February 12, 2011, 06:02:36 pm
it is meat and hygiene regulations               with that business having full insurance cover in case they sell contaminated meat and meat products
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: The Mobile Butcher on February 13, 2011, 01:06:41 pm

its a mine field of rules and regulations. I am sorry for any confusion. All I was offering was to help any body on their smallholding who was wanting a hand to butcher their meat, and I'm sorry if you think I was giving false hope.
 
I wish you all the best with your smallholding ventures. 
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: Mo on February 14, 2011, 09:35:35 am
Personally, I don't think you have given false hope. I read it as you were offering to help someone who wanted to butcher their own pig for their own use, and that certainly interested us, although you are a little far away.
I'm sure that there are people out there who would welcome this offer, surely not everyone is driven simply by wanting to sell on their meat?

Just as an aside, there's little point quoting Scottish Law to a guy in Whitby  :-\
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: Joe11 on February 14, 2011, 10:30:29 am
Personally, I don't think you have given false hope. I read it as you were offering to help someone who wanted to butcher their own pig for their own use

Agreed  :hshoe:
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: The Mobile Butcher on February 14, 2011, 04:48:13 pm
many thanks Mo and Joe...... its being chewing me all day thinking I have given people some kind of false hope., I feel better now knowing that at lease 2 people see what I was trying to say, hope you get your meat butchered.
and enjoy it,  :wave:

how far away are you ?
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: Fleecewife on February 14, 2011, 05:17:10 pm
<<Just as an aside, there's little point quoting Scottish Law to a guy in Whitby>>
Too true  ::)

Just wanted to say that before we started selling our hogget meat to the general public, we had an ex butcher who chopped our carcasses in our kitchen. We transported them from the abattoir ourselves, but nowadays that wouldn't be possible.  It was a great way to learn so much about our sheep and to improve our husbandry, by looking at the finished product.  One unexpected thing we learned was never to haul sheep around by their wool - our butcher showed us the big bruise on one carcass where that had happened - we have never done that again !!  So I think that what Paul is offering is an extremely valuable service, much more than just the basic butchering, although that will be a big help to someone.  I so wish you were not so far away Paul, as we don't sell to the public any more and our previous butcher friend is no longer doing that.  Good luck with your new venture.
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: robert waddell on February 14, 2011, 05:35:29 pm
HO HUM HERE WE GO AGAIN                    
just to add to my last post, If your animals are slaughtered in the Abattoir, I am fairly certain you can have them butchered on yr smallholding and you can sell the butchered meat to the public.
that was the part that i refereed to the false hope  not your idea of assisting others with butchering/cutting if you are quite happy carting round your stainless work tables/bowls/mincer/sausage stuffer/chopping block and knifes just how and if you could fit them all in a kitchen especially if you are cutting cattle as well beats me(in all my 57 years i have only seen one kitchen that could accommodate all this equipment) if you are happy cutting meat in obviously low hygiene surroundings just you get wired in and ignore other comments on this forum
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: The Mobile Butcher on February 14, 2011, 05:46:46 pm
God I need A bigger van ;D   ;D ;D
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: waterhouse on February 15, 2011, 12:04:39 am
Does anyone point me at the regulations for the butchery and sale of meat IN ENGLAND.  The FSA website is written in a cuddly style until you want actual information then it's either crassly generalistic or simply dumps you into the text of the statutory instruments.  Ah yes, sometimes it suggests phoning the local authority instead. 

DEFRA rules on animal welfare say "It's not acceptable to lift or drag sheep by the fleece, tail, ears, horns or legs".  Presumably a pointy stick is fine!  DEFRA has been busy cutting costs by rebuilding its website so that you can't find anything now.  The above quote appears in the Businesslink.gov.uk website which would not on the face of it have much to do with DEFRA except that their phone number is quoted.

Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: Mo on February 15, 2011, 06:58:22 am
HO HUM HERE WE GO AGAIN                    
just to add to my last post, If your animals are slaughtered in the Abattoir, I am fairly certain you can have them butchered on yr smallholding and you can sell the butchered meat to the public.
that was the part that i refereed to the false hope  not your idea of assisting others with butchering/cutting if you are quite happy carting round your stainless work tables/bowls/mincer/sausage stuffer/chopping block and knifes just how and if you could fit them all in a kitchen especially if you are cutting cattle as well beats me(in all my 57 years i have only seen one kitchen that could accommodate all this equipment) if you are happy cutting meat in obviously low hygiene surroundings just you get wired in and ignore other comments on this forum

HO HUM indeed.
We only raised 2 pigs last year. We would have been quite within our rights to collect the carcasses and butcher them ourselves. We didn't because we didn't have the skills. We are still within our rights to invite a skilled person to help us to butcher them, if they bring their own tools all the better for us. Otherwise, well,  who's to stop us using the bandsaw we use on trees?
Incidentally has anyone watched Hugh wotsits Pig in a Day DVD?
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: Dan on February 15, 2011, 08:38:26 am
that was the part that i refereed to the false hope  not your idea of assisting others with butchering/cutting

Maybe you should have been clearer?

Quote
if you are quite happy carting round your stainless work tables/bowls/mincer/sausage stuffer/chopping block and knifes just how and if you could fit them all in a kitchen especially if you are cutting cattle as well beats me

Who knows, maybe some of us have stainless work tables and other bits of stuff?! And maybe we don't all want to sell our meat, just learn from someone else's expertise? And maybe we don't all have cattle and would be really happy with some help on something smaller? We had some excellent help from a butcher with our table chickens, which we home slaughtered and butchered.

Quote
if you are happy cutting meat in obviously low hygiene surroundings

Err, which surroundings are 'obviously' low hygiene?

Quote
just you get wired in and ignore other comments on this forum

Or Smiffy could ignore the negative, sniping, snide comments that come from some quarters, and concentrate on helping those people who don't want to butcher whole cows in their toilets in the dark and try to sell the output to Waitrose?

If you've got help to offer please try to offer it in a constructive manner.
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: Brucklay on February 15, 2011, 09:08:09 am
I agree totally, whatever the subject, its a lot better to read constructive comments than nasty remarks, hear hear to Dan
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: HappyHippy on February 15, 2011, 09:26:49 am
I think the point that Lillian's trying to make when refering to "low hygiene" is that a domestic kitchen couldn't ever be classed as a 'food safe' area in the eyes of environmental health (see Egglady's thread on small businesses) and therefore you couldn't sell the meat butchered there to the general public - rules, regulations and red tape ahoy  ::)
If you're butchering for your own consumption there's no problem doing it in your own kitchen - other than possibly a lack of space, pigs seem much bigger when they're split and laying on a worktop :o ;)
I think Smiffy has a good idea and a lot of knowledge and tricks of the trade that I think should be passed on to others - how long before the supermarkets take over the country and all the local butchers have to give up and the skill is lost (other than in mass production processing plants)  ???
But I'll shut up and get back in my box now, don't want to start a riot  ;)
Happy Hippy says "peace & love man, PEACE & LOVE !" ;D ;D ;D We're all on the same side really :-*
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: Mo on February 15, 2011, 01:55:22 pm
*Totally OT*

I like your avatar, Happy Hippy :)
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: loosey on February 15, 2011, 02:02:48 pm
Smiffy, I think you could be onto offering a really popular service there! We are way down in Cornwall but when we started keeping livestock we went on a short butchery course and can now (I say) pretty competantly deal with pigs, sheep, deer and other small game.

If somebody with a van like yours was availble in our area I would have much rather hired someone in to show us in our own home (you might even be able to sell a few knives or other equipment whilst you're there!).

No false hope taken at this end, I think it's a wonderful idea!  ;D :pig: :sheep:
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: faith0504 on February 15, 2011, 02:04:41 pm
 i wish you all the very best and hope your ideas come alive and the business works for you  :wave:
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: HappyHippy on February 15, 2011, 03:22:40 pm
*Totally OT*

I like your avatar, Happy Hippy :)
Why, thank you Mo  :-*
It's nice isn't it ? My new 'logo' for Yonderton Rare Breed Pigs  ;) ;D
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: Rosemary on February 15, 2011, 06:11:32 pm
God, I love him when he's riled  :-*
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: Fleecewife on February 16, 2011, 12:21:39 am
God, I love him when he's riled  :-*
;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Butchery Services Offered
Post by: The Mobile Butcher on February 17, 2011, 06:52:00 pm
Well thanks for all the positive feeback, ;D  (I'm Still needing work)
Lots of people from Scotland and down south who are needing a butcher, so I might have to do a road trip with my services. :P Its a shame theres not many  North Yorkshire smallholders replying. :wave:
All the best to you all