Buying meat from the farm

[disco gazza]

Hi all,
Have been thinking about buying my meat(lamb & chicken mostly) direct from the farm.
Has anyone bought from a farm and got it delivered and if so what was the meat like.I normally buy from the local butchers but have been reading about buying direct from the farm instead.They say its much better than your local butcher or supermarket.

Thanks

cheers

[isuzurover]

Not sure what you mean by "from the farm".

Farmers in AU are only permitted to slaughter meat for their own consumption or that of their workers. They are not allowed to sell any of that meat.

Meat sold for human consumption needs to go through an accredited slaughterhouse.

Some farmers send animals through the slaughterhouse and then sell the meat, but not many.

A colleague of mine owns a farm and does this, and we buy a 1/4 or 1/2 a cow from him from time to time.

We also produce our own pork and poultry for our own personal consumption.

[Bigbjorn]

Some people in Western Qld. used to go to the late night butcher. Self service, all you need is a gun and a chainsaw.

[sheerluck]

Some people in Western Qld. used to go to the late night butcher. Self service, all you need is a gun and a chainsaw.

Some people in Logan do something similar. Still self service, just steal a ute and drive it through the butcher's doors. :mad:

[jonesfam]

We called it a "Bush Kill", the local Cockies around Doomadgee seem to just accept it as part of doing business.
I could always tell when a Bush Kill had happened, beef sales at the store dropped by 50% for a few days.
Jonesfam

[Judo]

If you can find a farmer that will do it, then go for it, but I think the quality of a decent butcher is just as good. I get lamb and beef from family farms, although it doesn't get slaughtered on the farm. It goes from farm to slaughter house / butcher, back to farm in packets. Which I see as no different to farm to slaughter house / butcher to your hands. Big chains and supermarkets are different, but a good local butcher is excellent quality and you're supporting local business as well.

I can't notice any difference in quality from good local butcher and family farm, but the supermarket is a different story. To me the local butcher is usually the most convenient and equal best quality.

[weeds]

It's been at least six years since I have brought beef from a shop......

A friend of mine runs beef cattle. When we buy a beast it goes to the abattoir than to a butcher than I pick it up.

The main risk when buying a whole beast is if the meat is tough than you are stuck with it. We haven't had a bad cut to date. The biggest issue is having to run a freezer to hold 120kg of meat

It's a whole lot cheaper buying it this way.

We have now started buying pork direct from the farm as well.

[POD]

We have a small acreage- lifestyle property- and grow 1 head of beef per year. The biggest attraction is the cost; a few years back I added up the total costs including feed, transport, abattoir fee & butchering- and 210kg of beef had cost us about $700.00. We've had one beast that was tough, which means you're eating tough beef for a year.
I've considered offering, say, a quarter of a beast to colleagues at work. haven't really explored that yet.
The butcher who does our animals is a family friend. I haven't yet been able to persuade him to cut a whole beast as fillet steak for some reason.

Why not hire a stock trailer, go and buy a live animal from a farmer and take it straight to the abattoir? There is a simple piece of paperwork required, pretty sure the farmer could provide it.

[Chops]

The SIL has a hobby farm, she calls up an "on-site butcher" who kills and cuts it for us,,, awesome stuff, and cheap too :D

[Tank]

Cattle, sheep, and Pork carry diseases that can be passed on to humans by eating the meat, like TB and hiadatis (not sure of spelling), these diseases are screened out at abbatoirs, Regards Frank.

[Andrew D]

Farm v Butcher

The farm wins every time. The key is knowing how to finish the beast and slaughter it.

My old man used to slaughter his own. For an engagement present he bought us a 200 litre chest freezer.;)

Cant beat a fat eye fillet done medium rare but closer to rare from your own cattle.

Regards
Andrew

[Chops]

Nothing beats meat from the farm,, if its killed right, it just tastes sooooo much better.
A lot less stress on the animal when its done at home, and I reckon you can taste the difference.
I'm sure there are disease's and stuff you can probably catch from home kill if its not done right, but I think most guys that do kill at home are pretty careful. I cant say I've ever heard of anyone getting crook from their own meat.

We had a dinner party/feed here a couple of weeks ago, involving a few people who frequent this forum. It was a rather large Lamb Leg Roast done in a camp oven, and everyone seemed to be very happy with the meat :D and I don't believe anyone was crook from it :cool: (now I spose one of these clowns will chime in and say differently,,,:eek:)

[33chinacars]

We have been killing our own beef for the last 12 years or so. First totally on farm by on site butcher. With our help it worked out at $1 / kg. Not including rearing the beast.
Lately we have had to use a different system. Ship to abattoir killed them back to a local butcher who cuts it all up ready for the freezer. This works out at about $3/ kg. That's for everything. Steak, roasts, rolled roasts, mince, sausages, anything you want. BEST BEEF there is. Had a couple of semi tough ones over the years. Never any problems with diseases. All checked. And you know where they have been. Not paying $20 for a top steak any more

Gary

[disco gazza]

For the city folk that like fresh country killed meat....:)

Which farmer do you go to...
I know that it has to be butchered at a licenced place(butchers).
Have googled it and there seems to be quite a few around.
Would like someone in NSW preferably..

Thanks

cheers

[olbod]

I have always preferred the the meat from a carcase that I have selected, killed and dressed myself. Working on the land in different parts of the country you soon learn ( with some early advice from the old blokes ) which will be the best for your table. They might all look the same but they are not.
These days of course, I dont bother or care and most of my meat is quick and easy from a can.

[flagg]

If you don't have a direct relationship with a farmer, going to a farmers market is a good compromise. Not sure in Sydney but in Canberra there are weekly farmers markets where you can buy meet from local farmers.