Thread: The price of meat these days is a joke.

I had a friend that would go halves whenever he had a beast spare. I miss my mate but I never thought I would miss homekill so badly, The meat was just next level compared to what you get in the shops, and the salami & sausages from Counties Killing were great. Also when I defrosted some frozen rump from the shop vs homekill there was a lot of excess water from the store brought stuff.

Just struck up a deal with the neighbor who runs a few cows.
Somehow he ended up with one with horns, so was going to be a PITA to get it to the works. It got the homekill treatment, and I get to put my butchers hat on for the opportunity to take half an animal. Gave him the same money he would have got for the 1/2 if it had been sent to the works. I get a lot more meat for my $$, and the quality of the meat is far superior to anything we see in the local supermarkets.
He's now talking of making this a yearly thing, as he gets 1/2 an animal butchered without much of his time or effort used. He was quite taken back by how well the meat is marbled compared to what he could go out an buy.

If you are prepared to front up with labour and enough money to make it cost neutral for the farmer, you might just get onto a winner.

Cutting up a Angus cow tonight was a false positive to a tb test only shame is its about a 10 year old cow it's a beefy tho so prob still better than meat ud buy from the supermarket

Worried about meat price, try dry dogfood, brand I normally buy gone from $155 to $220 a 15 kg bag.

thats crackup I have only had so called colonial goose once about 25 years ago! and never heard or seen the term written down since Gold!

Last beef heifer we had homekilled using a homekill outfit (as opposed to killing and breaking it down ourselves) using the meatworks rate last October, worked out at $11/kg average across all cuts. Not cheap, but definitely cheaper than the supermarket.

If we do it ourselves (2 days for 2 people on the knives and mincer etc) it obviously comes down a lot more.

Last animals we sent to the works in March (2.5 year old beef heifers not producing decent milk) yielded $5.80 a kg on the hook. So you can see homekill does increase the meat cost somewhat.

Originally Posted by XR500

Last beef heifer we had homekilled using a homekill outfit (as opposed to killing and breaking it down ourselves) using the meatworks rate last October, worked out at $11/kg average across all cuts. Not cheap, but definitely cheaper than the supermarket.

If we do it ourselves (2 days for 2 people on the knives and mincer etc) it obviously comes down a lot more.

Last animals we sent to the works in March (2.5 year old beef heifers not producing decent milk) yielded $5.80 a kg on the hook. So you can see homekill does increase the meat cost somewhat.

$5.80 a kilo is your costs, or a price you were happy to let those meats go?

Originally Posted by Black Rabbit

$5.80 a kilo is your costs, or a price you were happy to let those meats go?

My costs of raising beef are of little concern to the works, or the supermarkets!!!

$5.80/kg was what the beef processing plant paid me. 'On the hook' means carcass hanging on the weigh scale hook with no guts inside, no head and no hide. So almost all bones are included in the weight.

Very roughly, a live beef animal that weighs 500kg will weigh about 250kgs 'on the hook', and if you removed every bone from every cut, the meat left would be about 125kgs.

To get a 500kg beef animal (too small to really be viable at the works, steers need to be 650-700kgs) you need to keep a mum (600kg cow) alive on your property eating 16-25 kgs of dry matter each and every day of the year, then its calf on the farm for 1.5 years eating 5-20 kgs of dry matter a day, dose it with minerals 3-4 times, a worm or two, hope it doesn't die, then sell it and get $1600ish. If it was a dry year, it may have eaten silage to the tune of $600 (lost revenue).

Then try paying a mortgage, avoid like the plague hiring anyone to assist you as generally they are more hassle than they are worth, pay exorbitant costs of having fert applied, mending your own tractor etc etc etc, Regional council rates, district council rates and on it goes.

Meat based protein continues to be rorted by the pack houses and the conglomerate supermarkets.

Originally Posted by XR500

My costs of raising beef are of little concern to the works, or the supermarkets!!!

$5.80/kg was what the beef processing plant paid me. 'On the hook' means carcass hanging on the weigh scale hook with no guts inside, no head and no hide. So almost all bones are included in the weight.

Very roughly, a live beef animal that weighs 500kg will weigh about 250kgs 'on the hook', and if you removed every bone from every cut, the meat left would be about 125kgs.

To get a 500kg beef animal (too small to really be viable at the works, steers need to be 650-700kgs) you need to keep a mum (600kg cow) alive on your property eating 16-25 kgs of dry matter each and every day of the year, then its calf on the farm for 1.5 years eating 5-20 kgs of dry matter a day, dose it with minerals 3-4 times, a worm or two, hope it doesn't die, then sell it and get $1600ish. If it was a dry year, it may have eaten silage to the tune of $600 (lost revenue).

Then try paying a mortgage, avoid like the plague hiring anyone to assist you as generally they are more hassle than they are worth, pay exorbitant costs of having fert applied, mending your own tractor etc etc etc, Regional council rates, district council rates and on it goes.

Meat based protein continues to be rorted by the pack houses and the conglomerate supermarkets.

Only a new business model may could overcome current price surge, and giving the real benefits to farmers and those whom paying at the point of sales with pains wherever in NZ or overseas market where NZ meat were exported to. Personal, I do `t see any NZ beef here in the capital city of China, only Aussie `s, frozen one, low quality and the cost is up to $22.00 per kilo on promotion.
I heard there is company was trying to do direct sell to consumers in Auckland in the first year of C19 pandemic, but maybe it will ended up like the kiwi international airlines story. "Bring a knife to a gun fight" in meat market of NZ, hope you could know what meant. But still there are chances to streamline sales lifecycle from farm to table, cut out unnecessary middle men by means of new business models, financial instruments, better budgets planing etc. I almost see every articles with the word of sustainability, but seldom to see how to sustain with sound approaches.
Anyway, if I have to stay in NI, Auckland because of job and INZ, not my dreaming place of Canterbury, I think I can digest one of your cow occasionally if there is any, put my efforts in to work on carcass, pay you sir the initial price, price to cover your costs and reasonable profits, then for the extra earning from sales, there will be another %% after logistics and tax.

Originally Posted by XR500

My costs of raising beef are of little concern to the works, or the supermarkets!!!

$5.80/kg was what the beef processing plant paid me. 'On the hook' means carcass hanging on the weigh scale hook with no guts inside, no head and no hide. So almost all bones are included in the weight.

Very roughly, a live beef animal that weighs 500kg will weigh about 250kgs 'on the hook', and if you removed every bone from every cut, the meat left would be about 125kgs.

To get a 500kg beef animal (too small to really be viable at the works, steers need to be 650-700kgs) you need to keep a mum (600kg cow) alive on your property eating 16-25 kgs of dry matter each and every day of the year, then its calf on the farm for 1.5 years eating 5-20 kgs of dry matter a day, dose it with minerals 3-4 times, a worm or two, hope it doesn't die, then sell it and get $1600ish. If it was a dry year, it may have eaten silage to the tune of $600 (lost revenue).

Then try paying a mortgage, avoid like the plague hiring anyone to assist you as generally they are more hassle than they are worth, pay exorbitant costs of having fert applied, mending your own tractor etc etc etc, Regional council rates, district council rates and on it goes.

Meat based protein continues to be rorted by the pack houses and the conglomerate supermarkets.

I think that's what we paid a local farmer for a baren dairy cow about 7 years ago. It's next to impossible to find anyone willing to bend the rules nowadays.

Originally Posted by XR500

.............

Meat based protein continues to be rorted by the pack houses and the conglomerate supermarkets.

Yes -

Originally Posted by MarkN

Posted here as it's not funny enough for the jokes thread.

The price of meat these days is a joke.

The argument, that Britons (for example) pay $x.00/Kg in London, so why shouldn't we be charged, the same price here - fails as follows:

The price in London includes transporting the meat, 18,327 kilometres from Auckland (for example, could be Tauranga etc).

So if I am paying the same $x.00/Kg price as they do in London, then I want my meat, to be transported 9,163.5 Km and back again, before I buy it and I'd like to have proof that such has happened.

Logically the meat in NZ, should be London Price $x.00/Kg minus the cost of transporting meat 18,327 kilometres.
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And why can't I buy mutton? All the lamb legs in the supermarket are huge, I think they are Hogget labelled as Lamb, but where are the Mutton Packs?

Also the butchery process, now seems to include half a pelvis when you buy a lamb leg, or a pork leg roast.

Best to buy cancelled export orders, or shrink wrapped meat with export markings on it. They wouldn't try selling pelvis to the export market.

I'm serious about the pelvis, I boned out a large lamb leg I bought and cooked and compared it to skeleton illustration of a sheep. Clearly part of the pelvis was attached to the leg.

I emailed a marketing wallah at PaknSave, with photo and illustration and he wasn't having any of it. Nor could he answer the question of the missing mutton.
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Ok I'll say it

Isn't the whole point of this forum to NOT buy meat?

Originally Posted by 308

Ok I'll say it

Isn't the whole point of this forum to NOT buy meat?

Damn right! we don't eat beef or lamb/hogget ect. It's Venison or Tahr at ours, I've seen the supermarket prices and just no, just bloody no.

Definitely cheaper than the supermarket? You ain't been to the supermarket lately I suspect - $190 a fillet of about 4Kg weight? $23 for a packet of sausages that don't actually seem to contain meat? FFS...

Thoe animals you have down there Simon will be tasty when they are ready. I need to get some replacements soon.