dexter beef

[strawberriesclint]

Hi everyone

I am thinking about selling dexter beef by the box, could anyone give me an idea of what sort of cuts should there be and what weights.

Thanks

cyndy

[pudser]

Cyndy,

If you check out the "finishing youngsters "thread below you should find a good erxample of box beef and prices.

puidser

[Broomcroft]

Cyndy - This is an average for a number of animals, not many though. Depends on how you butcher though and the animal.

Joints
Topside 13.05
Silverside 9.15
Top Rump 1.23
Forerib 9.05
Brisket 6.24
Thick Rib 5.59

Steaks
Fillet 2.86
Sirloin 10.15
Rump 6.78
Minute 2.70

Braising Meats
Braising Steak 7.66
Stew Steak 16.75
Shin -
Minced beef 21.02

Total 112.23

[CarolineL]

Hi Cyndy

I have some notes at home about what we put in boxes when we did our first one in autumn. I'll get them in some kind of order and put them up here.

My biggest tip is don't go overboard on selling it! We had 16 customers - 4 for 10kg boxes and 12 for 5kg boxes and it was a bit stressful trying to divide it up equally! Then I sold quite a few individual cuts too so in the end there was hardly any left for ourselves!

Can recommend getting it vac-packed and labelled (depends on your customers though - ours really appreciated it) and it's worth paying the extra to get some burgers made as customers really like those - they make a nice easy meal.

Good luck!
Caroline

[strawberriesclint]

Hi Caroline

i would really appreciate those notes, the more information i can gather on what people put into their boxes the better idea i'll have.

cyndy

[CarolineL]

Hello Cyndy
Will try and do it this weekend!
Thanks
Caroline

[pudser]

Hi,

Just a few simple queries in relation to the sale of beef in boxes/packs.

When doing box schemes Is it better to do fresh or frozen?
Are insulated boxes used and if so which are the best?
Are icepacks included in the boxes.

Thanks

pudser

[Broomcroft]

We don't do many boxes, but when we do, we sometimes supply direct straight after packaging and leave it up to the customer to freeze, or more usually, we freeze the boxes and then supply.

We supply in cardboard food-type boxes, which is how they come back from the butcher/abattoir and our meat is wrapped in professional quality, thick clink film, sometimes on trays, depending.

We personally don't use ice-packs even if not frozen because the supply is made very quickly whilst still chilled. Meat I have bought Mail Order to try, has come in polysterene boxes, and they have had ice packs over the meat. The best example was bubble-wrap which had very large bubbles filled with water, then frozen. That meat was vac-packed but not frozen.

Off the subject but talking to people, and it is our experience, box schemes can start off quite well, but then customers will not want standard boxes any more, they will only want the cuts they want.

I think possibly the ideal would be vac-pack, fresh and chilled? But some people do not like vac-packed meat. It's probably the best and sometimes only way, but I don't like it myself even if it does affect the flavour, but that's personal.



Edited By Broomcroft on 1264775177

[pudser]

Thanks Clive a really helpful insight.I know that I personally would not be interested in a box scheme .

We have made significant progress in sourcing a restaurant to take substantial amounts of mince for gourmet steak burgers.The remainder we hope to sell through a few independant retailers.

Our abattoir will slaughter,vac pac and deliver to a number of independant gourmet/health stores with the prime cuts with which we have had discussions with. He will vac pac and we hope to brand the beef.He has offered this service for E150

If we work back from point of sale what margin would you allow(they require) the retailer?

Kind Regards

Pudser

[domsmith]

we give our shops 30% off our retail price list. so they sell at our list price but i give them a discount. you obviously need to be selling quite a bit to them to justify the big discount off your profit.

but i would not sell anyone elses meat for less than that margin..
the retail packs all have my labels on so i get alot business from people buying at a farm shop then coming direct to me.

dom

[Broomcroft]

Hi pudser

I don't know what retailers sell dexter for. But I guess it must be something like the bigger outlets that sell direct do. And that averages just over £12 a kilo. You can get individual prices from Broomcroft Info in the Downloads section.

If you accept those as the retail prices, then working backwards, if I were paying all the killing, packaging and delivery costs, then I would want something like £8.50 minimum, and would really prefer £9.00 and over, but you've got to go with the market haven't you really. So that leaves the retailer about 20-30%. That's assuming the retailer is just selling the meat, not butchering etc. 20-30% for selling sounds all right to me.

But you will find a lot of variation especially in mince. Quite literally people sell dexter mince for under £3 a kilo and some for more like £8. Myself I would go for about 20-30% higher than someone could get normal mince for, or somewhere about the £5-6.50 region? To me, mince is the best cut from a dexter, I just love it.

A burger made from dexter is a gourmet burger. Best to sell it as a Dexter Burger or Gourmet Dexter Burger I think.

There are quite a few people I've spoken to over the years who produce a lot of mince instead of other cuts because it sells well. I assume they mince up everything except the best cuts. Might be a good idea as long as you can get the price for the mince. Only you can work that one out really.

I know nothing about prices in the eurozone though, other than my Irish relatives telling me how high land prices are...... , or if you own it...... :D.



Edited By Broomcroft on 1264861683

[Broomcroft]

PS. In my post the one before last, I suggested vac packing does affect flavour, I meant to say "does not". Just a typo I couldn't edit.



Edited By Broomcroft on 1264870059