Deep freezers

[aj]

I got to wandering about the viability of selling locker beef. We have a extra deep freeze to store frozen meat in. Alot of people don't. Some people can't.....that say live in an apartment. Is there any data out there generated on this subject? It is alot handier to buy product a little at a time.

 

[aj]

Plus.....if you loose electrity and don't have a generator you could loose the entire load.

 

[Doc]

Yea, losing electricity is always a concern. I sell several calves a year as freezer beef. I sell it by the whole or half. I've had some people get friends to split a half. I think if you start selling as individual cuts, you get into a whole new ballgame. I think that at that point the slaughterhouse has to be USDA inspected and your place may have to be also. I have no problem selling the beef tho.

 

[pweaver]

Around here the locker plants stamp all meat packages with "Not For Resale".  The state board of health can't inspect every plant every day.  So they just inspect when the plant is processing for their retail sales.  Freezer beef sold by producers have to have the consumers name stamped on the packages.  That way it is going directly from processor to consumer and not through a retail middle man.

There's several questions that come up if you store the meat for a customer.  1.  Are they going to buy a half or split a half with a friend and pay for the whole amount upfront?  If not, you could have their meat with their name on it and not be able to sell it to a third party if they decide not to pay.  And paying for a half these days could be just as much a hardship as storing it.  2. If you could legally sell it by the cut, you might be left with a lot of cuts no one will buy (hamburger, cheaper cuts, etc., or the more expensive cuts).  3. Who is liable if they buy a half, you're storing it, and something goes bad (electric outage)?

 

[GoWyo]

Wyoming allows the producer to sell individual retail packages so long as you have a separate freezer.  Each package has to have a label from the packer with the weight of the package. The packer has to be a USDA inspected facility.  Sold out of all of the rib eyes, n.y. strips and the filet mignons and about half the ground beef the first week and have been eating all the rest of it ourselves the last 5 months.  Pain in the rear.  Much better to sell whole, halves and quarters.

 

[aj]

I was wondering what % of .....say Kansas households have a "deep freeze"? 10 percent? We always had one when I was a kid. I didn't have one when I was single. We have one now that I am married. Families probably aren't as big as they used to be. And with meat prices pretty high.....how many people want to buy 700 dollars worth of meat up front at one shot?

 

[nkotb]

Just a few of the rules I can remember for Kansas are:  Plant must be USDA inspected, If you are selling by the cut/pound, the package has to come from the butcher with a kind of cut and weight of cut on the tag, you must collect sales tax if you are selling cuts, you can be audited by the USDA to make sure you are following safe handling/storage techniques.  That's all I can remember, I'm sure there are tons more.  It's interesting to note that in Kansas, if you sell the live animal to the person, and they pay to have it butchered there is no taxes paid, however, if you pay to have it butchered and sell the cuts, you must pay taxes on this.

 

[aj]

nkotb.....I was wondering about this. I wondered about liabilty insurance also. Hey is there a D. Polifka still out there.

 

[justintime]

We actually have three extra deep freezes just for beef.I have one for our own use and 3 others that are used to store our beef that is for sale. I have bought all 3 extra deep freezes for $100 or less from people who were moving or retiring, and I also find the older deep freezes are still very reliable. We have one deep freeze that is 60 years old. It has never been touched and still works great.  We sell a pile of hamburger so we run a bunch of old cull cows though, and have them made totally into hamburger.I usually try to have a young animal and a couple cull cows done at the same time and blend the hamburger together. I find it a bit funny, that we sell most of our beef to the Regina City Police, and the city of Regina has a long standing by law which states that it is illegal to sell uninspected beef within the city limits. Many of the cops are willing to pay a big premium for our beef and it is amazing how much they can eat! We price our beef considerably higher than what it sells for in the supermarkets, and have never had anyone complain about it. It is a lot of extra work, but it is a good way to get a few extra dollars from an old cow, an animal that breaks a leg, etc.

We are fortunate to have very good power service here. In my lifetime, the longest our power has been out was 5 hours after a blizzard and ice storm.

 

[aj]

I have wondered about putting a couple more freezers in basement......not sure the wiring is sufficient in our older house. The longest I can remember being without juice was 11 days. It was an ice storm-with a blizzard deal. I had never thought about the sales tax deal. I spose it would be a state sales tax.

 

[justintime]

I have wondered about putting a couple more freezers in basement......not sure the wiring is sufficient in our older house. The longest I can remember being without juice was 11 days. It was an ice storm-with a blizzard deal. I had never thought about the sales tax deal. I spose it would be a state sales tax.

We have two freezers in the basement and two across the road in the feedlot building. I prefer having the meat we are going to sell, in freezers not in the basement, as it is much easier to just back a vehicle up to one of  the freezers in the steel shed, than to carry it all down to the basement and then carry it all back up when you sell it.

 

[nkotb]

AJ-Mr. Polifka is still farming out here now with his two boys.  The tax I know of was a state tax, so did not apply if shipping out of state.  The operation I was working with raised buffalo, and also did hunts.  The state audited them every year, not sure if it was because of the hunts or the meat sales, just something interesting.  They kept liability insurance for the hunts and for the people coming on the property to pick up meat.  We also delivered a lot of meat to restaurants in Wichita.  They also had a credit card machine in case people wanted to pay that way, but charged the credit card fee to whoever wanted to use the card, I think it was an extra 3 or 4%.

 

[aj]

I know grocery stores have alot of insurance in case someone claims to come up sick from eating a product. I would think meat lockers would have insurance.

 

[J2F]

I don't know the laws but this is a basic risk reward scenario. Your greatly expanding your risk with your product. You are going from a cow/calf all the way to retail with all the risk involved. Is the potential profit worth all the risk?  meat contaminated  people suing,  power or freezer going bad and this will punctuate your current  risk.You would have much more invested in your cow/ calves and feeders. Just something to think about.

As far as people with deep freezers I know most hunters have one or two. 

 

[aj]

Kinda interesting how the trial lawyers can shut businesses down with frivolous law suits. I wonder if some states are more business friendly. Maybe compare Wisconsin to Kansas. Course the trial lawyers are big contributors to the Democrats. I would think the court makeup would matter also.