Dexter Meat Prices

[wychwood]

Hi,

I know there have been a few posts on prices but not for a while and I guess it's useful to have a catch up on current trends, so here goes:

I have my first Dexter steer going to slaughter soon. I've looked about and seen that some divide the steer into 1/6 boxes, removing the fillet to sell seperately, and sell at between £8 to £10 a kilo for a mixture of cuts. This seems quite a process but preferable to being left with mince whilst customers pick and choose the best.

What do you do? Do you sell in boxes or in specific cuts, what are the pros and cons you've encountered and what do you charge?

Thanks

Becky

[Jac]

No simple answers, much depends where you live and who you are selling to. Where you are going to have your beef cut and how they are going to pack and label it (if indeed they are). What are your competition selling it for - not just those with Dexter?

[Broomcroft]

Hi Becky,

We don't sell direct any more except friends and family, but I'd have thought £8 a kilo (even though minus fillet) is at the bottom end of prices to charge. If the beef is butchered and packaged well then the £10 region sounds more like it to me, but you might want to give a discount on your first animal??? If the butchering, packaging and labelling is basic, it's much harder to charge.

There is a list of average cut price on our farm info site but it's a bit out of date (Oct 2009!!!). It's at www.broomcroft.info, then go to Downloads, and you'll find it in there somewhere.

About 2-3 years ago, we were selling at £8.50-9.00 a kilo (minus fillet). But as Jacqui said, it varies hugely depending on where you are are your particular customers. Where we live, everyone is a farmer, so they don't like parting with their money

[Jac]

Your don't know how lucky you are Clive. If I were in your position I'd have cleaned up by now. Pie factory that's all I'm going to say on the subject.

[wychwood]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies so far.

I am getting a butcher to cut, vacuum pack and label. He can split into boxes but says this will add to the cost of butchering which will be approx £200. Slaughter will be £100.

I had to buy the non-short steer in as I kept having good quality heifers that I sold. He cost me £250 at 12 months and is now 29 months. I would say he is about 450kg, possibly more.

I am lucky enough to have a captive market that have sampled my pork for a number of years so have built up trust with them which is why I want to find that margin between covering my costs and keeping my customers.

regards

Becky

[Broomcroft]

That's quite expensive Becky. We pay £200 total (might be a bit more now) for a really nice job, in 8 boxes, wrapped in thick professional cling-film. Vacuum-packing would be more I guess. Not anywhere near Wrexham are you? There's a great abattoir / butcher there for home kill, boxed.

Maybe you should sell the cuts or make up boxes to order?

[wychwood]

Clive,

I am near Horsham in West Sussex. The abbatoir does do butchery but no-where near as well as the butcher that I use.

Becky

[bjreroberts]

No simple answers, much depends where you live and who you are selling to. Where you are going to have your beef cut and how they are going to pack and label it (if indeed they are). What are your competition selling it for - not just those with Dexter?

My pricing starts around the £10.50 mark, but I then discount the frozen meat after a period of time so if it has been slow to shift I can end up at £9.00 - £9.50 per kilo overall.

To be honest I have never tried selling a 1/6 box, but feel that most of my customers would struggle with both the cost and volume. I tend to sell a mixed selection at around £50-£55 and then some customers will come back for a top up of particular cuts.

[Broomcroft]

I am near Horsham in West Sussex. The abbatoir does do butchery but no-where near as well as the butcher that I use.

Yes it needs to be good butchery. We had two heifers done last year by someone new to us, because they were more local. What a disaster, nothing wrong with the beef but we had to sell it all off cheap nevertheless.

I'd say Ben's prices look about right and fair to me.

[jem]

I sell my meat purely to friends & family, 1 steer in spring, 1 in autumn. I exclude the fillet and divide everything else by 8 (mince, chuck, skirt etc, sirloin steak, rump & all joints). I sold the last steer in February this year at £9 per Kg. I offer the meat back to whoever bought the previous time and have only had 1 person drop out and that was because it was too far for them to come and pick up the meat (about 30 miles!). I have slaughtered 4 times so far, with another going in autumn and everybody has already said they want to be included. I also have 3 people waiting to buy should anybody drop out. This probably only works because I do it on such a small scale and whilst I may not make the most money, it more than covers the costs and is pretty much hassle free, with all the meat I am selling off my premises by the end of the day I get it back from the butcher.