Farmers buy local butchery to sell their meat
An overheard conversation led to a Central Hawke’s Bay farming couple diversifying into retail butchery. reports.
The market wants to know where its meat comes from, say Duncan Smith and Annabel TapleySmith, the owners of Patangata Station and the new owners of Waipawa Butchery.
‘‘When people buy meat from Waipawa Butchery they now know it’s finished at a farm just 10 minutes up the road,’’ says Smith.
The couple took over the butchery at the beginning of the month. It was sold by 77-year-old Murray Stephens who had worked there for 60 years and owned it for 40. The Smith family has been farming in Central Hawke’s Bay for just as long and has been shopping at the butchery for many years.
Tapley-Smith overheard a conversation when Stephens first started talking about his impending retirement and it started the couple thinking about a possible new business opportunity.
She works in event management and communication – her main focus is co-ordinating the Hawke’s Bay Wine Auction in support of Cranford Hospice – and her family has a background in rural tourism having founded the Cattledrome in Queenstown.
Having a background story is important to the Smiths. It’s important to the market too. Three top Hawke’s Bay restaurants had already approached them about buying their meat before they took over the butchery because of the story that came with it.
‘‘They get a lot of questions from their clients about where the meat comes from. We can tell them that story, plus we’re also breedspecific, gender-specific and weight-specific. If they order our lamb they know they’re getting a suftex [suffolk-texel] ewe lamb killed at 19-20 kilograms from Patangata Station.
‘‘If they order our beef they know they’re getting an angus heifer, 240-280kg with lovely marbling from Patangata Station. Consistency of quality and quantity - it takes the risk out of their end.’’
Their beef and lamb is also promoted as hormone-free, GMfree and antibiotic-free.
The Smiths finish 10,000 lambs across three blocks with about 1000 to go to the butchery and the rest processed through the normal farming operation. About 400 heifers are targeted to go to the butchery. They also finish about 250 angus steers.
‘‘We have more than we think we’ll need for the butchery but demand is growing every week. So this is where the supply equation becomes more interesting, having enough flexibility in the numbers farmed that if there is a surge in requirements they can handle it. Conversely if something doesn’t suit what the butchery wants it goes back into the farming operation,’’ he says.
The Smiths have changed their farming operation in the past decade from a coastal hill country property to inland finishing country.
They started with a 550 hectare family farm that had been farmed by Duncan’s father and grandfather. They bought 333ha Paihia on the eastern side of the Tukituki River at Patangata 10 years ago then sold 230ha of the home farm. In 2014 they added the 30ha Evan Rd block near Otane, where they now live.
‘‘Two years ago we got Patangata Station under contract (270ha) and sold the rest of the home block. It has given us more security with 100ha of irrigation and winter warm finishing country. We’ve gone from steep hill country to land with a different value and more options.’’
Paihia and Patangata Station are separated by the Tukituki River at Patangata. Paihia runs back towards Elsthorpe while the latter heads inland towards Otane.
When they bought Paihia the hill country had already been subdivided into 6ha paddocks with a new water system.
‘‘The P levels on the Paihia hill are in the high 30s and it tends to hold on well in the dry.’’
So Smith says they concentrated on developing the higher returning land, increasing the flat area available for cropping from 75ha up to 120ha mainly by pushing the fences back against the hills and clearing areas with the potential for more cropping.
A hundred hectares is now irrigated by a Rotor Rainer, hard hose gun and a 700m pivot.
A large portion of the cropping is barley sold for feed. In the past they have grown beans and peas for McCain’s and squash for Brownrigg Agriculture. Barley will replace existing plantainclover this year but it will be resown in autumn. About 150ha of Italian ryegrass is also annually sown across the three blocks. Winter feed crops of kale and rape are grown depending on requirements. ’’We’ve improved the quality of the flats as well as the size of the area,’’ Smith says.
‘‘We’re deep ripping down to 550mm so we’re improving the soil type with much better aeration and stocking policies, which has definitely improved our yields.
‘‘We’ve also quietly accumulated gear so apart from harvesting we’re doing the bulk of the ag work ourselves.’’
Next door, Patangata Station has 15ha of irrigated flats. There are plans for subdivision and a new water system on its hill paddocks this spring. ’’The irrigation is essential for the supply to the butchery in the summer months. We have to be able to finish animals in a drought.’’
All animals are bought from the store market. ’’We generally buy locally but we have to buy in weight ranges that will mature over a period, not all at the same time. We want to add the weight ourselves so we just go to the market when we need to.
‘‘We have 1500 suftex ewe lambs specifically for the butchery that are farmed separately. We chose suftex as a specific meat breed with a nice rounded loin. We’ve been trading lambs for a while now and Barry Strong, who looks after our day-to-day operations on the farm, had already decided suftex was the one he liked eating the best.
‘‘The rest of the trading stock are male lambs, predominantly terminals, with a target this season of 22kg carcass weight.’’
He says the bulk of their production is susceptible to soft commodity price fluctuations but it doesn’t have quite the same effect when selling retail. ’’If we can get to the point where 80 per cent of our cattle and 30 per cent of our lamb are going through the butchery that would be ideal.’’
It’s a short supply chain with both beef and lambs killed through Progressive Meats in Hastings.
‘‘Emma Rough and Rebecca McNutt handle our beef and lamb. They’re brilliant to deal with. Carcasses are brought back to Waipawa for processing. Our meat is cold-boned. It has very white fat and succulent and good quality meat with good marbling.’’
Justin Hinchco is their butchery manager – he was lower North Island Young Butcher of the Year in 2015 and 2016 and is in the finals for Butcher of the Year next month. The business has two other butchers, two front-of--house staff and a cleaner, as well as Duncan when needed or when not working on the farm.
Previously the butchery was known for its award-winning sausages but it’s now including top export quality lamb and beef. ‘‘We also have some new products now with more planned. We sponsored the Waipawa All Sports rugby club day the day we took over the butchery and we had great feedback on the quality of sausages and meat patties. Everyone raved about the patties.’’