Pricing Your Meat Products Presented at the Direct Meat Marketing Workshop Mauston, Wisconsin Feb 25, 2010 Keith VanderVelde UW Extension Marquette County

How much meat will you have to sell? (Approximately) Avg. Live Weight Beef 1,200 lbs. Pork 250 lbs. Lamb 120 lbs. Average Carcass % of live weight 720 lbs. 60% 175 lbs. 70% 60 lbs. 50% Average Amount of Packaged Cuts % of live weight 480 lbs. 40% 125 lbs. 50% 36 lbs. 30%

What is your cost for that meat? (Not including processing) Beef 1200 $1128 Pork 250 $87.50 Lamb 120 $114 Carcass Cost $1.56/lb.$.50/lb.$1.90/lb. Cost of Packaged Cuts $2.34/lb.$.70/lb.$3.17/lb.

Need to make sure you are getting paid for… All processing costs including licensing, labeling, locker charges Your time for hauling, picking up, phone calls, delivery, selling Advertising costs, brochures, farmers’ market fees If you aren’t recouping these costs, why are you doing this?

How should you sell your products? Hanging (carcass) weight – quarters/halves Easy calculation for the producer Customer deals directly with the plant May be very confusing for the customer Customer may not want/have room for/be able to afford that much meat at one time

How should you sell your products? Individual cuts Easy for customer to understand Affordable & convenient for customer More handling for the seller Much more complicated pricing Seller may end up getting stuck with some less desirable cuts, running out of popular cuts

How should you sell your products? Mixed quarters Customer gets a wider variety Seller doesn’t get stuck with a bunch of front or rear quarters Freezer bundles Possibly ½ of a mixed quarter Same advantages as above Fits customers with limited freezer space, limited budget

Consider some incentives to increase sales or decrease costs Discount or other bonus for referring people to your business Discount for picking up meat at the farm or processing plant Discounts for volume or multi-species purchases

Keep in mind… Your product is different than anything else on the market Customer perceives value in knowing the source of their meat - traceability Customer wants his or her meat dollars going to farmers, not Smithfield or Tyson The grocery store is not your competitor Price should be in line with other producer marketers, not Piggly Wiggly Often you can provide a better product at a better price than Piggly Wiggly

Questions or Comments?