Guest guest Posted April 22, 2002 Report Share Posted April 22, 2002 Tim, We are " growing our own " (remember when that had another meaning? <G>) meat and in the process of becoming a custom slaughter. This way folks can come to our place, point to the goat, hog or beef they want, buy it and then we process it for them. It's not USDA so they can't sell it on from there but it will work for us as we're not looking to get big. Belinda In a message dated 4/22/2002 7:56:06 AM Central Daylight Time, clearvu@... writes: > y guys! > > Forgot to mention that along with the fact that Northstar bison is using > the same slaughter house as we are, Northstar is in negotiations to buy > it solely for the use of its own slaughtering. > We us it for beef and pork, and it is the closest to us (90 miles) that > still can handle our account. If northstar goes in-house we will also > lose our pork supplier which we have gone to great lengths to keep in > the business to meet our costumers demand and food store expansion. I > have not a clue where in the whole state I could find another hog > producer that raises to organic standard on a small and inexpensive > scale, and with current prices on the open market, their will be less > every day, and i can't get to them fast enough to offer a good price on > a consistent basis, beef is headed in the same direction. > Northstar can only at the present time get 52 animals run through the > plant each year which apparently is not enough. > They plan to have outside accounts if northstar purchases it for the > next two years, but after that we are SOL. > The recent thread about the small farmer out competing the big boys is > all well and good but it doesn't do us any good to raise it if we can't > get it cut up for the consumer. > Ironically, my Dad owns a bigger slaughter house in the southern part of > the state (325 miles from us) he doesn't even do beef or pork anymore. > All the people in that area now want the ready made throw in the > microwave complete meals. > He even turned down a million dollar contract to make those meals for a > outfit in Chicago. > Now all my Dad does is chicken, pheasants for a large farm and geese and > turkeys. He is one of two state inspected chicken processors left in the > state thanks to the wonderful Haccap plan(very big joke i might add) and > he is looking to sell, as well as the other guy who has wanted to sell > out for the past 4 years. > BUT no body wants to get into it because of the state pressure, applied > by the big boys to end any competition. > In a nut shell very soon we are all going to be screwed. > Meat plants are very expensive to build, and Im to busy growing the > stuff to butcher it as well. > What's the answer? I don't know, but keep buying local, its the only way > to change the vision that butchers have that they are a dieing breed.. > Tim > Clearview Acres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 22, 2002 Report Share Posted April 22, 2002 Hey guys! Forgot to mention that along with the fact that Northstar bison is using the same slaughter house as we are, Northstar is in negotiations to buy it solely for the use of its own slaughtering. We us it for beef and pork, and it is the closest to us (90 miles) that still can handle our account. If northstar goes in-house we will also lose our pork supplier which we have gone to great lengths to keep in the business to meet our costumers demand and food store expansion. I have not a clue where in the whole state I could find another hog producer that raises to organic standard on a small and inexpensive scale, and with current prices on the open market, their will be less every day, and i can't get to them fast enough to offer a good price on a consistent basis, beef is headed in the same direction. Northstar can only at the present time get 52 animals run through the plant each year which apparently is not enough. They plan to have outside accounts if northstar purchases it for the next two years, but after that we are SOL. The recent thread about the small farmer out competing the big boys is all well and good but it doesn't do us any good to raise it if we can't get it cut up for the consumer. Ironically, my Dad owns a bigger slaughter house in the southern part of the state (325 miles from us) he doesn't even do beef or pork anymore. All the people in that area now want the ready made throw in the microwave complete meals. He even turned down a million dollar contract to make those meals for a outfit in Chicago. Now all my Dad does is chicken, pheasants for a large farm and geese and turkeys. He is one of two state inspected chicken processors left in the state thanks to the wonderful Haccap plan(very big joke i might add) and he is looking to sell, as well as the other guy who has wanted to sell out for the past 4 years. BUT no body wants to get into it because of the state pressure, applied by the big boys to end any competition. In a nut shell very soon we are all going to be screwed. Meat plants are very expensive to build, and Im to busy growing the stuff to butcher it as well. What's the answer? I don't know, but keep buying local, its the only way to change the vision that butchers have that they are a dieing breed.. Tim Clearview Acres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 22, 2002 Report Share Posted April 22, 2002 At 07:46 AM 4/22/2002 -0500, you wrote: >Meat plants are very expensive to build, and Im to busy growing the >stuff to butcher it as well. >What's the answer? I don't know, but keep buying local, its the only way >to change the vision that butchers have that they are a dieing breed.. >Tim I think there needs to be some kind of PR or advertising campaign. When I was a kid there would be these ads for " Get half a side of beef at x$ a lb! " . I don't see them any more. Maybe because fewer people are eating a lot of meat? But I keep talking to people who complain " I can't afford to get beef any more! " and I tell them, " hey, I get mine cheap, I just buy it by the half ... " , and give them a couple of steaks to try, and I've converted a few, and they have also converted a few ... but the distributor isn't interested in advertising or otherwise making their services public (if there was a LOT of demand they could not handle it at this point, I guess). Really, dealing more directly with the farmer or distributor or slaughterhouse would be better for everyone -- but very few people know that. They are bombarded with ads about how they should buy premade meals or eat at Mcs, but no ads or information about how nice it would be to have a nice, shrink-wrapped, freshly frozen steak all set to throw in a pan for dinner. I'd guess that if I had the time (and didn't have another business to run), I could sell a few hundred head of beef (longhorn, anyway) a year just by placing some good ads and running some good deals. Probably more. There IS a demand out there, and there ARE people who want to buy in bulk and get healthier meat. Hardly anyone knows how easy it is to do. Heidi Schuppenhauer Trillium Custom Software Inc. heidis@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 22, 2002 Report Share Posted April 22, 2002 At 07:46 AM 4/22/02 -0500, you wrote: >The recent thread about the small farmer out competing the big boys is >all well and good but it doesn't do us any good to raise it if we can't >get it cut up for the consumer. >Ironically, my Dad owns a bigger slaughter house in the southern part of >the state (325 miles from us) he doesn't even do beef or pork anymore. >All the people in that area now want the ready made throw in the >microwave complete meals. >He even turned down a million dollar contract to make those meals for a >outfit in Chicago. >What's the answer? I don't know, but keep buying local, its the only way >to change the vision that butchers have that they are a dieing breed.. >Tim >Clearview Acres My Dad can't do it anymore leaving a local slaughterhouse that did a lousy job smoking last time and what they returned was questionable as to wheather it was our pork. There's another I've heard of with good reports further away. My Dad turned down meat cutting at the grocery stores when they came in shortly after where he worked closed. Respect him for that as it wasn't groveling and standing by his professionalism. He did custom meat cutting for a country store/farmer's exchange some after. Its hard to witness all this throughout your lifetime and know that the expertise of meat processing, a survival skill that all men had throughout history is being marginalized to individuals doing portions of the process along mass production lines. My parents met in a meat locker plant where my Mom packaged.Was when there was little refrigeration and people bought, had their meat processed and stored there. Was less than 50 years ago. BTW, I've found my best soil. Neighbors steers are loose and went to graze in front of the barn first. <g> Wanita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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