Meat Suite & Price & Yield Calculator
Meat Suite now available to NC Farmers!
Meat Suite is an online tool designed to help consumers purchase locally raised meats in bulk for delivery or shipping. The platform launched in New York and is now being developed for North Carolina. NC Choices is hosting training sessions for N.C. Cooperative Extension and for meat producers to support the site’s launch in January 2020.
For an overview of the registration process and what MeatSuite can provide to your farm or business, please check out this MeatSuite Instructional Video.
Past Meat Suite Events: Recordings
Creating Consumer-Friendly Meat Bulk Sales | Recording Link
Thursday, Dec. 12, at 1:00 p.m.: N.C. Cooperative Extension Webinar | Recording Link
This training is specifically for Cooperative Extension agents and personnel who are interested in helping farmers sign up for MeatSuite and becoming eligible for grant funds to support professional development!
Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 6pm: Meat Producer Training Webinar | Recording Link
This training is designed to help meat producers walk through the sales platform and register to promote their farm and sell their products online.
N.C. Cooperative Extension agents are eligible for a $200 scholarship – the first ten counties to register ten producers will receive the $200 award to support professional development opportunities for county and regional agents. Agents are asked to share the following resources with their local producers and assist in the signup process.
One-Page Overview of MeatSuite and Calculator Tool –Download Here
Field Instruction: How to Sign Up for MeatSuite – Download Here
Printable MeatSuite Postcard for Promotional Use – Download Here
Pricing Guide for Producers Utilizing MeatSuite – Download Here
Are you a producer who is ready to sign up now? Download the Field Instruction document, fill out both pages, and send an electronic copy to Emily Edmonds, NC Choices Evaluation Coordinator, at emily@carolinacreators.com. When the site launches, we’ll enter your information for you and let you know when your profile is ready!
Meat Price & Yield Calculator
MeatSuite’s calculator tool, the Meat Price & Yield Calculator, was also developed by Cornell Cooperative Extension and Cornell has partnered with NC Choices to extend this resource and support to North Carolina producers thanks to the USDA Beginning Farmers and Rancher Development program. The Cornell Meat Price and Yield Calculator helps you set prices for each marketing channel in which you sell to ensure you reach your profit goals.
The Cornell Price Calculator was designed to simplify cost accounting, value the farmer’s time, and make pricing for each market channel easier, all while ensuring the desired profit per head. The Price Calculator simplifies pricing for meat sold by-the-cut or carcass and helps users ensure that they cover all entered costs and build in a profit.
The Price Calculator is also useful for calculating the carcass-to-retail yield for your animals and balancing consumer demand for each cut. Finally, the Price Calculator can be used to “test” marketing channels and even as a means to explain pricing to your customers.
The Price Calculator can be found online at calculator.meatsuite.com. The tool is free and easy to use.
More About MeatSuite
MeatSuite, an online directory where consumers can search for local meat, was created as an effort to increase sales of local meat in bulk quantities (quarters, halves, and wholes) directly from farm to consumer. Consumers can search farmers using criteria such as location, species, and farm practices. The site also includes educational pages that explain some commonly asked questions including feeds, pricing, and dressing percentages.
In part, MeatSuite was created in response to a 200-consumer survey conducted in rural NY. Participants were asked if they bought local meat, and if not, why not. They were also asked about bulk buying and if not, why not. At the same time, 40 livestock producers in the same region were surveyed to learn about their current scale of freezer trade sales (freezer trade is a regional term for bulk sales) and limitations to expanding sales. Both the consumer and farmer groups reported that the main limitation to freezer trade expansion was finding each other. Thus, MeatSuite and its slogan, “find your farmer, fill your freezer,” was created.
Once MeatSuite is launched, N.C. Cooperative Extension will promote the site to consumers, teaching them the benefits of buying locally-raised meat in bulk directly from the farm. Consumers then contact the farm that suits them best.
On MeatSuite, farms create their own profile, highlighting features of their farm and products. MeatSuite profiles must contain contact information and pricing. Once submitted, a site administrator at NC Extension will review the profile and if approved, put it up on the site. A farm’s profile expires one year after its approval, prompting the farmer via email and requiring a log in and update.
Questions?
Contact NC Choices Technical Coordinator, Lee Menius – lamenius@ncsu.edu – 704.202.9348
This project is supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program competitive grant no. 2018-70017-28550 of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.