Mobile butcher beefs it up

Chris Hawke, who runs Chris’s Quality Cuts, started his mobile butcher business in December last year and has found that the demand has been growing in areas such as Euroa, Strathbogie and Benalla.

“I’m going to two farms a week and with the way demand is going I can see this gradually increasing to every day,” Mr Hawke said.

“It’s really been a word of mouth thing in the north-east and people have just been passing on my details and that is how the business has evolved."

Mr Hawke has 17 years experience in butchering as well as 10 years experience in boning rooms and the slaughter process, so mobile butchering is an ideal business for him.

He said there are an increasing number of benefits with this type of butchering and the farmer is seeing the results behind these benefits.

“Transport is one of the big factors,” Mr Hawke said.

“Farmers’ are finding that the process is cost effective because they don’t have to transport their animals to an abattoir.

“The whole process takes place on their property.”

This is beneficial not only to the farmer but also the consumer.

Increasingly, consumers want to know more about where their meat has come from and what the butcher process involves.

With this style of butchering, the farmer has the opportunity to see and watch the whole process, an experience which isn’t necessarily available via mainstream butchering.

“The animals are hung on the farmer’s property and after a week I return to complete the specific cuts required,” Mr Hawke said.

“With this type of process one of the main benefits that farmers’ can see is that they know the meat is theirs.

“The animal hasn’t left their property.”

All packaging and labelling also occurs on the farmers’ property and Mr Hawke’s required equipment is attached to a trailer on the back of his car and taken to each farm.

Full report in this week’s Stock and Land, Thursday, October 27 edition