Farmer to Fridge expands options for Mid North cattle producer

Owner Brenton Juett, Blyth, has a few different butchers he uses to process his produce.

He said multiple butchers allowed him to further his reach of consumers to indulge in his beef and selling his stock through Farmer to Fridge broadened his accessibility area more.

"In this area there are two butchers we use, Rocky's Boutique Abattoir at Crystal Brook which is pick up only and we are also using Wira Lea Farm, Marrabel, that's got a small butchery there and that is also pick up only," he said.

"But what I am selling through Farmer to Fridge can be picked up at Mannum because it's done through Ponde Meats.

"They also offer delivery through to Metro Adelaide and I believe I've also had a couple customers down at Victor Harbor that they also delivered to.

"So they cover a fair area with their deliveries."

He said sales through Farmer to Fridge meant they could order an eighth of a beast.

"It makes it a bit easier to sell," he said.

"But the local butchers in which I sell direct to consumer through find eighths just too difficult so I can only offer quarters."

Mr Juett said he only sold through paddock-to-plate and was only selling older cattle through traditional markets.

"We only want to be selling the absolute premium as paddock to plate," he said.

Crossbred cattle has improved the beef quality a Mid North producer offers through a paddock-to-plate business.

Sandy Ridge Ag owner Brenton Juett, Blyth, runs 90 head of Murray Grey cows and heifers on about 120 hectares.

He bought in Speckle Park-cross dairy cows and grew them out to boost his breeding numbers.

He has also introduced Speckle Park lines into their Murray Grey herd through an AI program.

"We have started using a bit of Speckle Park semen amongst our program as we find they grow out quicker," he said.

"We are calving year round to meet our consumer demand.

"But the market is very finicky, it goes up and down quite a bit as far as people contacting us to buy meat."

Mr Juett said the cattle were fed hay and grain as they were lucky to get grass throughout winter.

"It's almost impossible to keep them on grass in this type of climate all year round," he said.

"The cattle I grow out are on ad-lib hay with ad-lib grain in a self feeder but they're not confined like a feedlot.

"It's accessible but it is restricted so they can't get acidosis.

"Over a period of time you open up the feeder and allow them to get it a little bit more each time so their stomach gets used to being able to handle the grain."

He said their Speckle Park cross steers were at their best dressed about 300 kilograms.

"Their fat marbling qualities are quite astounding," he said.

"That may have been to heavy but we are finding that our meat is more salable if we aim for 260kg dressed weight or 540kg live weight.

"They'd be just under two years old at that weight."

Mr Juett said their produce was marketed as $10.60 per kg dressed weight and was sold in halves or quarters but not all of the purchase would be consumable.

"You don't actually get that weight because that's the weight of the carcass hanging in the coolroom," he said.

"When the butcher trims each individual cut - there are losses of fat and bone.

"But the customer has the choice of claiming all of that, whether they feed the bones to their dogs or if they want to keep it for soup, they can have all that back but then they have to find enough freezer storage which people find hard even for a quarter."

He said he would eventually love to offer a mixed box of beef and lamb.

"I'd like to get up to having about 200 cows and building up our market through paddock-to-plate," he said.

"But I'd need a butcher who would be willing to provide such as service or handling facilities so it's just a dream and an idea at this point in time."