www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche getting-a-label Getting a Label If you plan on having your product cross state lines, you have to have a federal label. A federal label can only come from a federally inspected plant. Your label is attached to your processing plant. For instance, we have a separate label for our jerky and marinated roasts than for our other beef products. […]
www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche processing Processing Finding a processing facility can be really hard or really easy, depending where you live and what your needs are. Processing plants vary enormously in the types of processing they do. You need to have a pretty good idea of what your needs are before you go looking for a plant because the evaluation and […]
www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche learn-how-to-cook-your-beef Learn How to Cook Your Beef Since starting this business, we’ve found that we are an endangered species – people who cook and eat their own food! At first we took it for granted that people would know how to cook a variety of dishes, and would know the appropriate cut of beef for that dish. It’s not true. I can’t […]
www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche scheduling Scheduling Unlike marketing your cattle conventionally and selling everything on one day, direct marketing your beef will cause you to have to deliver cattle several times a year. It can be trickier than you might think. If you are doing farmers markets, it is not so critical if you don’t have beef to sell at every […]
www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche organic-vs-natural Organic vs. Natural Until the summer of 1999, the USDA would not recognize, nor issue labels, that made any kind of claim to being organic (at least as far as beef was concerned). That’s how natural beef got started. Legally, the USDA use of natural only meant that your beef had no artificial additives and was minimally processed. […]
www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche frozen-vs-fresh Frozen vs. Fresh There is an age-old debate among meat scientists that asks the question, “Which is better: fresh or frozen?” Our experience has been that there is no difference in quality. In fact, our frozen beef may be more tender because fresh, conventionally marketed beef goes through its aging process during trans-port. So if you happen to […]
www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche expect-to-reinvent-the-wheel Expect to Reinvent the Wheel Author Allan Nation’s view of the learning curve shows the potential downside to being too ambitious without doing your research first. In his version, naive enthusiasm leads to total despair. In other words, take a good look before you leap into marketing your own beef. As stated earlier, the conventional beef marketing system is not […]
www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche stand-by-your-price Stand By Your Price The easiest way to determine your price is to start with the cow and work your way to the consumer. It costs you x to make a 500- pound calf, x to finish it, x to process it, and x to store, transport, package and dis-tribute it. Once you know all that, you can simply […]
www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche make-10-not-10000-mistakes Make $10, Not $10,000 Mistakes Once you have decided to market your own beef, it won’t take long before you figure out that things would be easier if your marketing effort were bigger. That’s because conventional beef marketing is set up to move huge quantities of beef very cheaply. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have lost an […]
www.sare.org publications how-to-direct-market-your-beef finding-a-niche how-to-cut-up-a-carcass How to Cut Up a Carcass No doubt if you’re looking into direct marketing your own beef you’ve talked to a butcher about how a carcass is cut up, and how much of what cut you can expect from a carcass. If you have and walked away feeling totally mystified, join the club. There are a million ways to cut up […]