Help With Price of 2yr Old Steer

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:47 am

Hi Julie,
The last ones that I sold where £10 per kg in 10kg boxes or bags. You will not get 12 boxes from 120 kg though. You are always restricted to what joints and steak you have. I have always put quite a bit of the cheeper cuts in my own freezer as we like to have stews, casseroles, mince etc. (showing my age a bit here) as its what we where bought up on. This meant that what I sold was a good quality box, hence the £10 per kg. Mince and poorer cuts are added but not in great quantity, burgers are very popular, sausages too if your butcher will do them but not every box can be the same (or the joints will be too small) It is a steep learning curve as you say and you can panic a bit when you see how much meat you recieve back the first time, but you soon get used to it.

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:49 am

Julie

You will get roughly 1/3rd of the liveweight in beef. So about 100 kg (very roughly). Ours are usually about 380-410 kg liveweight (non-shorts and very well fed) and we get between 125 and even 168 kg's (rarely). You should be able to sell the beef at an average of between £8-12 a kilo. It should cost you about £200 to kill, butcher, pack, deliver the animal to slaughterhouse.

It is normal to have the animal divided into 8 roughly equal boxes weighing about 12-15 kilo each. Only four boxes will have rib on the bone (keep the ribs as two ribs each).

£7.99 is cheap but if it's your first that's maybe what you want to do. But I would make sure that customer know it's a special first off deal so that if and when they come back they are primed to pay a proper price (£10?). If it's a small beast, the beef should be super special, much better than the larger ones, if he has a reasonable finish on him.

You abattoir is key. Ideally you want one who do home produced beef and know how to pack it. they should ask you to supply labels. The abattoir should have the boxes. Are you anywhere near Wrexham?

For the cuts, if you download a file from the Dexter Beef Online info site, you have some cut info in it. The site address is http://info.dexterbeefonline.co.uk/. Go to downloads and you will find a Dexter Carcass Stats file.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1236934269

dizzydex · Post by **dizzydex** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:48 am

Thank you for the replies they are brilliant!

What do you think of this box contents as a starter

1kg of Steaks varied
4kg Roasting Joints varied
1.5kg Braising Steak varied
0.5kg stewing steak
3kg Mince
1kg Beef Sausage
1kg Beef Burgers

although given the replies I realise that this may be a bit of wishful thinking

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:33 pm

Looks light on the steak front. You should have about 2-2.5 kilos of steaks. We don't go for sausages because we've found our customers don't want them. Other people sell loads of beef sausages! For Dexter Burgers, people will charge up to nearly £1 each, big ones mind you. At box prices, we just supply the mince, which is quite popular, and a recipe for burgers (there's a couple on http://www.dexterbeefrecipes.co.uk/).

We always ask the butcher to produce T-Bone steaks if he can, and 4 x two-rib on the bone roasting joints because we could sell those ten times over and at prices way above those you generally see. We charge for the bone!

Here's a typical make up of an 11-12 kilo 1/8th pack...

Joints
Topside 1.47
Silverside 1.03
Brisket 0.70
Thick Rib 0.63
3.83

Steaks
Fillet 0.32
Sirloin 1.14
Rump 0.76
2.23

Braising Meats
Braising Steak 0.86
Stew Steak 1.89
Minced beef 2.37
5.11

Total 11.17

Some people slice their topside or silverside into think Minute Steaks. Obviously these figures will vary greatly.

ann · Post by **ann** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:54 pm

If your butcher will box it up for you. one suggestion is to get him to put it = into say 4 boxes and then split it. It would be easier for you to work with it that way as its your first one. However you might find that he's not prepared to do that so make sure they do label it for you other wise you might find it all a bit stress full. I remember the first one we did, it came back on trays and it wasn't label as such. Mrs Beetons' book got well used that day. things have moved on since then as depending on the size of the animal my butcher packs it into boxed for me all nicely labeled up at a price mind you .If you can get one done for £200 then look after your butcher, the last one mine did was £340.00 mind it was 238kilo's dead weight, not that he charges much less for the little ones.

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:30 am

£340! Is that vac packed Ann? We pay £200, was £185 till recently, for the whole job except sausages / burgers etc, in 8 boxes, all nicely done at a Freedom Food abattoir.

dizzydex · Post by **dizzydex** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:09 am

Hi yes my butcher will do everything for £200 including picking the steer up for me. He is so good as he butchers my pork. He is going to label and put it into seperate boxes. I like the contents of your suggested box Clive. All I have to decide now is when. Interest in the boxes is very different from a sale so I think I will concentrate on this over the weekend.

ann · Post by **ann** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:02 pm

Broomcroft wrote:£340! Is that vac packed Ann? We pay £200, was £185 till recently, for the whole job except sausages / burgers etc, in 8 boxes, all nicely done at a Freedom Food abattoir.

sadly no its not vac packed but does include sausages or beefburgers. Unfortunately it seems to be the average price around here but at least I know I get all my meat back with this butcher, which is not the case with some who still charge around that price.

I believe we had a discussion once about charges an there seems to be a big variation from area to area.