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  • From: "Alderspring" <alderspring AT salmoninternet.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] re: direct sale of cattle to restaurants
  • Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 18:21:06 -0700

Mark in West Texas wrote:
Does anyone here sell their cattle directly to local restaurants? If so,
how do you manage it? Do you have the meat processed for them or do they
take care of that? How do you calculate the price?

We have sold in the past to several restaurants, but now only supply one
high end restaurant. We have kept this particular restaurant because the
chef features our beef by name on the menu, and this enhances our
credibility as producers of high quality beef and acts as advertising.

We have found restaurants to be kind of a pain. Their quantities vary from
month to month, they usually are fairly price sensitive, and the usually
want excellent quality. We never made a bunch of money selling to
restaurants, and they took quite a bit of time. Also, some other marketers
we have talked to have had problems with accounts receiveable and
restaurants, although we never experienced this with any of ours.

The restaurants we have worked with purchase on a per cut basis by weight at
a wholesale price (above the value of the same cut in a direct quarter beef
pack, but less than our retail price direct to customers). In order to sell
to restaurants in many states (all?--I'd be interested in knowing how this
is treated in other states), the meat must be processed at a USDA-inspected
processor. Most restaurants want high end cuts, so you have to balance
sales of the rest of the carcass. For a while, we balanced sales to our
high end restaurant with sales to a high end burger joint. You may,
however, be able to convince a restaurant to take a whole carcass, but it
would have to be a restaurant that sells product in approximately the mix
recieved from a carcass (check out their menu, watch the clientele, they
need to move at least 70% of their beef as ground because a restaurant
generally won't be interested in low-end roasts and will want them ground).

If you sell by the cut, you can look at prices of other direct marketers in
your area and get a sense of the retail value of your beef and figure a
reasonable discount (25-30%). You should also charge a delivery fee,
separate on the invoice.

Diane Green has written a short booklet about selling produce to
restaurants. Many of her points are applicable to selling meat. Also the
Stockman Grassfarmer has published several articles over the past few years
about selling meat to restaurants.

Diane's website is: http://www.greentreenaturals.com/

Good Luck!
Caryl Elzinga
Alderspring Ranch Grass Fed Beef
www.alderspring.com








  • [Market-farming] re: direct sale of cattle to restaurants, Alderspring, 12/13/2004

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