Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Marketing beef  (Read 4192 times)

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Marketing beef
« on: May 30, 2015, 05:11:37 pm »
I have to get the Jersey heifer that's not for breeding away.

The butcher is receptive to working with me to ship direct from his premises.  What I am hoping to do is co-ordinate orders so that I can work with him to pack and ship boxes of fresh meat by overnight carrier (or of course if you are in our area - 10 miles east of Carlisle - you can come and collect from the shop.)

I have some hoggets to go (last year's lambs, Shetland x, taste wonderful!) as soon as they are clipped, too, so there is a possibility of doing mixed boxes of beef and hogget.

I have posted a preliminary ad in Marketplace.  As much as indications of interest and orders, I would be delighted to get comments and advice, too, as I haven't done anything like this before!
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Factotum

  • Joined Jun 2012
Re: Marketing beef
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2015, 05:51:21 pm »
Hi,

We sell Shetland beef by the box - mostly to friends and neighbours in our small village, but also to some contacts in London and the South East.

Our butcher has an established mail-order business, so he has all the packaging, cold packs and courier arranged already. He uses gel ice packs -they are dry and need soaking on water to make them swell before freezing. He vac-packs everything except sausages.

He puts the meat into poly boxes like these:
http://www.jbpackaging.co.uk/poly-box-with-corrugated.html

Our 'remote' customers get their meat via an overnight delivery - leaves the butchers coldroom in Moray at 4pm, the package arrives by noon the following day. Feedback indicates the meat is nicely chilled on receipt - the gel packs remain frozen..

We have some cardboard boxes - I think they're called Euro boxes - that we use to transport the meat to our local customers. We deliver in the late afternoon, taking the meat straight from the butcher to our village. Again, the meat stays chilled long enough for us to deliver.

The butcher packs the stew & casserole, mince and the sausages into roughly 1lb packs. Joints are around 1.5-2kg, steaks are packed in pairs. This enables the customers to freeze the meat without having to split  the packaging.

All I can think of at the mo - hope this helps.

Sue

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Marketing beef
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2015, 07:26:19 pm »
That's brilliant, Sue, thank you so much  :-*

Vac-packing might be a bit of a stumbling block, not sure our butcher does that.  Of course it is the best way to package for transporting fresh.  I'll have to do a bit more research on that, I think.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Marketing beef : UPDATE
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2015, 12:05:01 pm »
Okay.  With the superb input from you wonderful folk on here, and an hour thrashing through logisitics with the butcher, we are Go!

Postage and packing for 10kgs meat, vacuum-packed, packed in a polystyrene box with chiller strips and couriered in vans suitable for carrying perishable items would be:

Overnight courier, to arrive by 10am the following morning, £27.15.  Arriving by noon is slightly cheaper, £22.45. 

Would these prices put you off buying meat at £10/kg for 10kgs total?

The heifer is booked in and the butcher plans to hang the meat for 21 days - although he says that if it's very lean, he may recommend hanging it for slightly shorter a time.  If it's 21 days then we'd be sending packs out to arrive Tuesday 30th June.  (So, assuming summer has arrived by then, it might be best to go for the 10am delivery.)

Please let me know your thoughts - as you know, this is my first time doing this, and I am very grateful for all input and ideas!  (Even if it's 'phew!  not at that price!' ;))
« Last Edit: June 05, 2015, 12:06:53 pm by SallyintNorth »
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Marketing beef
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2015, 01:10:20 pm »
All sold.

Huge thanks to everyone who kindly shared their experience and advice; it's made it a whole lot easier to organise!

Thank you also to everyone who expressed interest, and especially of course those who have ordered!

Provided it all works well and all the recipients are delighted, and the butcher isn’t saying, “Never again!”!, we might look to do this regularly - once or possibly even twice a year - although it would mostly be Jersey cross Angus or other beef breed, or a more beefy type.

I will write up some of the facts and figures, and logistics, when it's all done, for the benefit of others who may want to do this in the future.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Cowgirl

  • Joined Aug 2013
Re: Marketing beef
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2015, 09:06:38 pm »
Very helpful posts, and encouraging too - thank you. We're about to try this too - we have a steer to go to slaughter in July. We hope it will be as successful but it's a nerve wracking prospect.

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS