Selling butcher steers customers clueless
 

I have been selling steers for years but always get people that are uneducated on buying. This year the family that is buying one wants no ground beef, but they think they will get all the hanging weight in packages. How do you explain that you can't make it all into steaks roasts and stew meat? I told them they will loose a lot if they don't want burger as some meat really can't be made into other cuts it's just not possible. :hammer: I'm frustrated enough I hauled almost all my calves to market and will not be finishing out animals next year.

Toss all the bits and trimmings into a paper and label it Dog Food?

Could you work out an agreement in future, where you deliver the live animal to the butcher, and let them deal with the customers preferred cuts of meat?

Why sweat it? As long as you explain it to them and they still want no ground beef...why do you care? If you carefully explained it to them then I'd say you did your due diligence.

That's the downside of direct marketing. I get more frustrated getting the butcher to do what my customers want than I do from working with the customers. I can explain most things to my customers and most of them are pretty good at listening to my recommendations. On the other hand, the butcher I use the most doesn't like that I let my customers know they have options outside the parameters of his cut sheets. He says he doesn't mind special instructions, but doesn't like anyone else giving them options that might lead to special instructions. :hammer:

Bump the cost up about 500. Sell it on the hoof with a free pistol/with one loaded wheel, a block tackle and tree, a knife, and a bone saw. Advertise, "Some disassembly required".

Show them a beef chart:

https://www.google.com/search?q=beef...SPecGs-l2I0%3D

Great idea I want my steer cut up into KC strips why didn't I think of this before .

just keep the ground beef your self and call it a tip =P

yepers

So charge them the hanging weight... then weigh out the ground beef, and subtract.

Then mark up the ground beef and sell to someone else ;)

The agreement was they buy the animal I deliver to the butcher and they tell him what to do. They keep contacting me because they can't figure out why he wants to give them burger when they are paying per pound. They are city people though and I think they bough from a butcher and just got the best cuts last year. My other three customers this month where good they called in instructions and didn't bug me.

Don't deal with them again. If I have issues like that with people I don't deal with them again.
I had a pastors wife saying garbage behind my back. She didnt come to me. No no she said we cheated them and gave them the worst cuts. She thought that hang weight was the weight you would get in meat. I had another friend who sells beef set her straight. And this was after the fact I paid their processing and slaughter fees. I lost a fortune. At least they got to eat well for the winter.

When you sell direct to the customer, it comes with the territory. You can try to educate them and hopefully have a good returning customer, or you can try to find another customer who already knows how beef is processed and is easier to work with.

Why do you think so many people just put their calves on a truck and let the middlemen make money? Much of John Q Public is a pain in the butt, that's why!

I can't comprehend why they want no ground beef. It's the most versatile and useful cut of meat there is, in my book. I bet they "learned" that ground beef is more at risk for e coli than a solid muscle cut, something like that.

Is it a "full service" processor who can cure, smoke, make sausage, etc? Maybe they could be persuaded to use their trimmings for summer sausage, wieners, something like that?

ooh that is a good idea :thumb:

I wish the processors around here could do full service but I haven't found one that does everything. There are some meat stores you can take stuff to after and they make it into things but they charge about $1.50 a pound. I think I will give them the number to that store though maybe that will make them happy. I've been educating people for a few years but many of my good customers left this year since prices are higher. For what most wanted to pay (around $1.25 live weight) it was better for me to haul them to the auction.

Several years ago my custom butcher told me he'd had a funny request from a lady that dropped off a hog to be processed. When he asked her about her cutting list she simply replied, "All porkchops"!!!!!!! He said he never made her understand.

Some people just don't have the capacity to understand.

If he was able to do that you think he could do a pig all bacon!! Mmmmmmm :)

I use cut sheets...

Straight from the processor, with their down payment they get a sheet. We match the sheets up by the half and that's it.

I'm very clear from the beginning with every customer and make sure to set their expectations properly.

I would refund them if they paid any money, sounds like they just don't get it and your not going to make them. It's easier to walk away than deal with that, you will be dealing with them every meal they eat. Just how some people are, can't change it.

Good luck

I give my customers a printout and a cut sheet, explaining how much meat they can expect to take home, and where the cuts come from. It has saved me a lot of aggravation, when they think they've been robbed by the butcher shop.

Tell them the "pink slime" meat glue is expensive to use and they'd be better off with ground meat for the scraps.