I can arrange all the details for your required amount of processed frozen packs being sent to you. I am a qualified butcher and farmer, so I can get through all the issues to legally supply you with beef, sheep, pork etc.

Please contact me on 0273254535.

Regards,

Mike

I also saw the Sunday program on cow pooling. I can probably help as I’m a qualified meat retailer(shop butcher), I farm, I’ve had a homekill business in the South Island, I was selling meat packaging to the meat plants around NZ, and I have contacts for you to purchase a suitable animal.
I am wanting to set up a business service to provide the quality and meat quantity, cut to each owner’s/purchaser’s requirements, and arrange delivery.

From my experience as long as you get the cattle, sheep, pig or goat killed at a MAF approved site, you can buy the animal off the farmer for your consumption and money changing hands.

a)Suitable animal = To give you the best chance of ending up with ‘tender’ frying/grilling cuts, it is important that the animal has been grown at good industry growth rates ie: KG/live weight by the 18-20 months of age. If the animal grows too slow, then the animal is under stress and the chance of tough meat increases.
b) Killing methods = An animal killed in it’s normal paddock and routines is more likely to be die with less stress, which can be a contributor to toughening the meat. If you were to go to the meat works you would see and hear a very different atmosphere.
c) Ageing the meat = The best way to age the meat is to hang it on the bonwe for at least a week. Eating the frying/grilling cuts ‘fresh’ is not advised. Any cuts of meat minced, cooked slow suasages or corned will be ‘tender’.

d)Vacuum packed, gas flushed versus frozen, health risks versus cheaper than supermarkets = more to come…

LF = Quarter – 40kg pack $678 $16.95/kg split over a maximum of 8 months in lots of 10kgs or 20kgs at a time

FG = Quarter – from $490.00 – $560.00.

FG price is the price per kg of the beast PRIOR to processing so its before all the bits you don’t want are removed.

LF price includes storage should you not want the whole lot at once.

My guess is you are right. They are pretty comparable. $16.95 per kg for high quality beef (and the LF beef is outstanding in my opinion) is a pretty good price when you consider supermarket prices start close to that for the better stuff (ie topside mince) and go up to $40+ per kg for fillets.

LF also do a range of sausages and other smallgoods. I’ve had their flavoured sausages and their standard ones and even the standard ones are full of flavour, moist but not fatty etc.

I might buy some lamb from Farmgate and see how that pans out.

Lake Farm Beef are now doing a ‘cow-pooling’special where you can commit to getting half a beast but it’s only sent out to you in small packages when you need it. It’s a good idea and eliminates the need to freeze all the good cuts. But it’s still likely to be more expensive than supermarkets but obviously at a much much higher quality.

Now that we know it’s legal to buy an animal off a farmer and have it legally slaughtered in an abattoir we could ALL save that money.

Astro is correct in saying that the taste benefits of an ethically grown organic animal far outweighs the taste experience of supermarket meat. But, currently we can’t legally have an animal slaughtered on the farm (by a home-kill service) unless you own the farm, or the animal, or both.

Hi frees,

Try not to think of the real cost as dollars and cents. The REAL cost is a safer healthier product, presuming you raise an organic animal(Certified organic meat is very expensive in any case, so the cash savings would be immediate here).

The real costs are a healthy happy animal slaughtered humanely, pure organic meat, and reduced health concerns for you down the line due to consuming a more natural product.

I would rather eat that meat than meat from an animal under great stress at the time of slaughter (son worked in a works, trust me the animals know exactly what is happening to their mates and they suffer immense emotional trauma at the time of their slaughter. Very bad for the meat). Also supermarket bought meat is raised on chemically fertilised pastures and pumped with too many drugs, and may not even be New Zealand sourced product.

If you are able to produce home grown, consider yourself fortunate.

Angus beef is generally considered to be pretty good. I’d be interested in seeing the Farmgate prices if anyone wants to post them. It could well be cheaper than buying from other places if they are doing bulk kills.

The company featured on the programme was http://www.farmgatemeats.co.nz. They are based in the South Island but deliver anywhere for a fee. I got the feeling though that they aren’t as cheap as buying a beast off TradeMe and then having it killed by a homekill service. To my mind what Sunday did is illegal under the law – they were not taking an active role in caring for that animal for 28 days.

Good luck in your search. If you find any information be sure to let me know here at Meateaters. And of course, once you get your meat be sure to check back here to find some great recipes on how to cook it.

Cheers
Alan

Thanks for finding Meateaters. Visits to this site grew exponentially as a result of the TVNZ Sunday programme so there’s obviously a lot of interest in the purchase of good quality well-priced meat.

Have a look at another post I wrote called Homekill regulations in New Zealand, and the follow up to that one as well.

Pete Cronshaw is right about you having to have owned the animal for 28 days and being actively for it’s well-being. I think, from my reading of the law, that he was pushing the law, because he wasn’t caring for the animal directly himself. I think you’d need to be travelling to the farm and be seen to be feeding it and caring for it, otherwise you’ll be potentially liable for a hefty fine.

You’ll be able to find more information here: Food Safety Authority

Thanks for visiting and good luck.

Cheers
Alan