Abbatoir Costs

[Tim Watson]

Hello All,
We are just getting ready to put our first one in the freezer and spoke to the abbatoir today. They have quoted:-
£85 killing fee
£1.05p/Kg butchery
The lady I spoke to was very pleasant and said that Dexters usually kill out at approx 240Kg which would mean we were paying them £337.00 and would get back all the joints we wanted in plastic bags ready for the freezer.
She said that the meat weight would be about 1/3rd less than the dead weight so based on her estimated weight, approx 160Kg of beef for the freezer.
Does all this sound in line with your experiences?
Thanks
Tim

[bjreroberts]

Killing only fee sounds about right, but the butchery costs seem very high.

I pay about £180 irrespective of weight, hung for around 21 days and packed in polystyrene trays, cling film wrapped and labelled.

[Broomcroft]

Seems expensive Tim. Are you certain they charge £1.05 per kilo deadweight or boned-out. If it's on the boned out weight, so 160kg's at £1.05 plus killing charge, that would be normal.

Also, the average of 240kg deadweight is very high as well. I'd say an average non-short would be more like 200-220'ish. 240 is quite a big lad taken late. They can be bigger but not as an average.

If they are vac-packing, I haven't got a clue about price, never done it.

[domsmith]

There is a great variance in pricing. i would say £1.05 per kg deadweigth would be the market value. most E.C approved cutting plants would be looking for that and some more.
i do some cutting in my butchery and we charge about £180 for a beef animal and generally provide it vacuum packed and labelled. but i do not have the cutting plant red tape to manage. its just me and 1 butcher.

i dont think they are over charging, but its a squeeze on your profit margin.

[wychwood]

Hi,

I colected my first beef yesterday. I used STM Slaughterhouse at Woodmancote, Sussex and a local butcher. I had a long legged dexter at 29 months which killed out at 234kg.

The costs were:

£110 slaughter and hang for a week.
£150 for collection, hang for a further 2 weeks, butchery, vacuum pack and separate into 1/8th with the weight for each 1/8th.

I sold all but 1/4 I kept myself. It all was collected fresh and customers paid £10/kg , (average pack being 17kgs), with a few packs of sausages and bacon thrown in to keep them happy.

Becky

[springwater]

I've just taken 3 to a local abattoir and they also butchered. I've paid £200 per animal in total, joints were packed, labelled and frozen for me. They also put them in 1/4s for me - although they had forgotten to do that but did it while I was waiting.

[bmvbutchery]

Hi i'm new to this forum , i'm a butcher and we do Dexters on a regular basis for private customers.
There are a few different ways to butcher and pack beef with prices starting from £220-250 for dexters under 30months and packed in standard poly bags with labels and freezer ready, the best option is to vacuum pack and have your own design label put on the packs! we do custom label designs which consist of your business/farm name / address / product name / pack on date / sell by date / carcass ear tag number for traceability / slaughterhouse reference / butchery reference / price if needed . doing this enhances your product. We also hang the carcass for at least 21days

http://www.bmv-butchery.co.uk

[Tim Watson]

Took our first one in yesterday and Combe Martin Meats definitely get a reference from me. Very small, family run, everyone very friendly and helpful. Happy to explain, no pressure and no blue pipe!
Called them this morning and was told that the 25 month old heifer we took in came back at 65Kg one half and 67Kg the other. Nothing listed on the vet report and more surprisingly afetr what we have been told about our ground - no fluke! Waiting for the grade which I guess is the ultimate test of what we are doing.
Will let you know for your learned comments!

[Broomcroft]

Waiting for the grade which I guess is the ultimate test of what we are doing

Dexters don't usually grade well, and who cares, I would virtually ignore what you are told, to me it's just about flavour and tenderness. The UK grading system is designed to put a value on the carcass and has nothing to do with flavour or eating quality.

I sent 2 animals earlier in the year which graded O- and the abattoir said they weren't ready and needed a few more months out on good grass. It tasted a million times better than anything from the supermarket. And we just did another 2 which were over-finished, didn't get an actual grade but it would have been in the high O's. The beef is full of flavour.

[clacko]

http://www.ckmeatsdirect.co.uk/
if you are in the norfolk/suffolk area then try ck meats. £85 to kill, 88p kilo to hang,cut,vac pac, weigh and label and box. they deliver ours back as they pass our place twice a week. they do a fantasic job and all is presented well,

[Tim Watson]

Thanks everyone.
I have been given the opportunity to be there when they butcher the two halves. This was given on the basis that I could learn the correlation between what I see on the outside to the quality on the inside.
Apart from the obvious such as marbling etc would you more expoerienced people suggest I look for/ask about anything in particular?
Kind regards
Tim

[Broomcroft]

I'd say the trickiest thing to get right with a Dexter is the amount of fat it's carrying. You need quite a lot of fat IMO to get the big flavour but they can go to fat easily. So I'd ask the butcher re fat to meat ratio / fat covering. No 1 to me though, is still the marbling, not the lines of fat in the meat/steaks, I mean the actual speckles of fat. I THINK that's where the flavour comes from and to me is the most important aspect of breeding. Some people look at the animal to decide what to breed, personally I look at the steaks of the offspring. Little or no marbling, the cows goes (or the bull...never had that).

[Tim Watson]

Clive, thanks.
I will try to put up some photos of the steaks when we get them in a couple of weeks and see how it compares with people who are selling regularly.

[Tim Watson]

Collected meat yesterday and all looks good.
The questions I have is
1) We go 76Kg of meat from two sides weighing 65Kg & 67Kg ie 56Kg went in bone. Is this a normal ratio in everyones experience?
2) We got no liver, oxtail etc. Should we have asked for this specially? I had thought that we would get these as standard so didn't ask for them. Just need to know for next time
Thanks

[domsmith]

After 3- 4 weeks you might not want the tail and liver back, it might have gone west (gone off). Usually if you want offal you need to collect it straight away. tails sometime keep but are suseptable to rot!

Many plants regard these things as low value so dont look after them, so make sure you ask next time.

dom