Hereford Prime
Branding of meat products is one way farmers and processors can attempt to add value and squeeze a bit more out of the market. On Rural Delivery we ran a story a few months ago about Wallace Harmony Meats, which brands its own organic products. Other branded meats include Prime Range Texel (lamb), Angus Pure, and Hereford Prime.
Hereford Prime has been going for some time, and has been quite successful in standardising the quality of both live animals and meat cuts, aiming to supply beef of consistent visual and eating quality.
Cattle are carefully selected on farm, slaughtered at one plant where they undergo Accelerated Conditioning and Aging to ensure tenderness. Carcasses are sent to Bowmont Wholesale Meats where they are cut, quality checked, packed in shrinkwrap and aged for a further 21 days before being sent sold mainly to restaurants.
Laurie Paterson, a Hereford breeder at Greenvale near Gore, has been involved with Hereford Prime since it started in 1992, and has been its chairman for about six years.
The Hereford is bred for eating quality and a to produce a consistently very good product we felt that we needed to control branding and marketing right through to the end user at a high-class restaurant, says Laurie.
They were doing a similar thing in Australia, so we decided to have a go. We bought a pH meter and spent half a day a week in a cutting plant chiller to assess carcasses. As a bull breeder you try to breed the best bulls you can but it's not until you get into the chiller that you really appreciate what it's about for customers. They arent interested in breed or pedigree, what they want is a consistent product that will give a great eating experience in a restaurant.
Laurie says the brand and its approach have been very successful with its approach that involves selecting animals carefully, testing the carcasses, and working with cutting plants that supply restaurants with what they want. He is proud that Hereford Prime is the only brand that has made the final in the Steak of Origin Contest four times out of four.
We could have bought a meat processing plant and done it ourselves but we thought it is better to work with the people in the industry who have the expertise and hopefully grow their business and ours at the same time, he says.
In the South Island we teamed up with John Flynn at Bowmont Wholesale Meats, and in the North Island with Michael van der Hoeven at McGill Meats in Te Awamutu. Everyone in the meat industry talks about quality but with a lot of them it's only talk. Youve got to have people with the right attitude towards quality, and those guys certainly have.
Farmers have to supply the company with animals at the right weight and condition P grade, well finished and with a white face, meaning that they are at least 50% Hereford, grass fed, and no hormones used. Most animals in the Sth Island are pure Hereford or crossed with Shorthorn or Angus, while in the Nth Island a well-finished Friesian cross is accepted. Laurie says that when they first started the brand they struggled to get 60% of animals supplied meeting the specification, but now its up to 98% because farmers have become adept at breeding and selection.
The changes in muscularity and growth in the last 20 years have enabled us to put cattle into the system that we couldnt have done before. Its now possible to get many heifers into the acceptable grade whereas in the past you wouldn't have got heifers that could go grow to that weight without running to fat, he says.
The benefits to farmers are that they are getting paid at the top end of the market, there is a niche for heifers, and they are getting feedback on their cattle as to conformation, fat cover, meat colour and eye muscle area, and so they can make breeding decisions based on that.
Eye muscle area is a highly heritable trait. Most of the estimated breeding values on eye muscle area are about 1.9 square centimetres, but a few years ago we bought a bull that had the breeding value on eye muscle of 4.8, so that has the potential to give us a large increase. It will mean that the processor has more to sell and the chef in restaurant has a bigger, better product to cook for the customer.
Hereford Prime stock are killed at a Gore meat plant where carcasses undergo Accelerated Conditioning and Aging (an electrical stimulation process that avoids cold-induced toughening and promotes tenderness). Carcasses are held in a chiller for four or five days and then go to Bowmont Meats cutting plant in Invercargill.
John Flynns father ran a butchers shop in Invercargill, and John expanded the business to supply supermarkets, and took over the cutting plant. His sons also work in the business.
John was part of the formation of Hereford Prime, which over the years has developed into an important part of his business.
We break down carcasses into standard cuts, emphasising high levels of quality and consistency. pH tests are done in Gore, and when carcasses arrived here we also recheck for pH, says John.
pH must be less than 5.8, and we select for good fat colour, meat colour, degree of marbling, and rib-eye area. We vacuum pack cuts in Cryovac, and hold them in the chiller for two weeks before distribution to customers.
Once the meat arrives at restaurants chefs can normally expect a high quality storage life of three weeks. Chiller temperature is all important it has to be between 0 and 2C. Temperature recording kits are often put into the cartons and customers send them back so that Bowmonts can check the temperatures throughout the journey along the cold chain.
Restaurants are the main customers, and Bowmonts send products as far away as Auckland but most are in the South Island.
We supply the top cuts to many first-class restaurants and hotels in Milford, Queenstown, Invercargill, Millbrook, Te Anau, and Dunedin. The less valuable cuts we have no trouble selling to the local butchery trade, says John.
The restaurant industry is very price orientated, and it is very difficult to get them onto this product but once they try it they don't want to go off it. Its really only a matter of 25c to 50c per steak difference but the quality is much higher, we guarantee every bit of product that leaves here.
Hereford Prime has been going for some time, and has been quite successful in standardising the quality of both live animals and meat cuts, aiming to supply beef of consistent visual and eating quality.
Cattle are carefully selected on farm, slaughtered at one plant where they undergo Accelerated Conditioning and Aging to ensure tenderness. Carcasses are sent to Bowmont Wholesale Meats where they are cut, quality checked, packed in shrinkwrap and aged for a further 21 days before being sent sold mainly to restaurants.
Laurie Paterson, a Hereford breeder at Greenvale near Gore, has been involved with Hereford Prime since it started in 1992, and has been its chairman for about six years.
The Hereford is bred for eating quality and a to produce a consistently very good product we felt that we needed to control branding and marketing right through to the end user at a high-class restaurant, says Laurie.
They were doing a similar thing in Australia, so we decided to have a go. We bought a pH meter and spent half a day a week in a cutting plant chiller to assess carcasses. As a bull breeder you try to breed the best bulls you can but it's not until you get into the chiller that you really appreciate what it's about for customers. They arent interested in breed or pedigree, what they want is a consistent product that will give a great eating experience in a restaurant.
Laurie says the brand and its approach have been very successful with its approach that involves selecting animals carefully, testing the carcasses, and working with cutting plants that supply restaurants with what they want. He is proud that Hereford Prime is the only brand that has made the final in the Steak of Origin Contest four times out of four.
We could have bought a meat processing plant and done it ourselves but we thought it is better to work with the people in the industry who have the expertise and hopefully grow their business and ours at the same time, he says.
In the South Island we teamed up with John Flynn at Bowmont Wholesale Meats, and in the North Island with Michael van der Hoeven at McGill Meats in Te Awamutu. Everyone in the meat industry talks about quality but with a lot of them it's only talk. Youve got to have people with the right attitude towards quality, and those guys certainly have.
Farmers have to supply the company with animals at the right weight and condition P grade, well finished and with a white face, meaning that they are at least 50% Hereford, grass fed, and no hormones used. Most animals in the Sth Island are pure Hereford or crossed with Shorthorn or Angus, while in the Nth Island a well-finished Friesian cross is accepted. Laurie says that when they first started the brand they struggled to get 60% of animals supplied meeting the specification, but now its up to 98% because farmers have become adept at breeding and selection.
The changes in muscularity and growth in the last 20 years have enabled us to put cattle into the system that we couldnt have done before. Its now possible to get many heifers into the acceptable grade whereas in the past you wouldn't have got heifers that could go grow to that weight without running to fat, he says.
The benefits to farmers are that they are getting paid at the top end of the market, there is a niche for heifers, and they are getting feedback on their cattle as to conformation, fat cover, meat colour and eye muscle area, and so they can make breeding decisions based on that.
Eye muscle area is a highly heritable trait. Most of the estimated breeding values on eye muscle area are about 1.9 square centimetres, but a few years ago we bought a bull that had the breeding value on eye muscle of 4.8, so that has the potential to give us a large increase. It will mean that the processor has more to sell and the chef in restaurant has a bigger, better product to cook for the customer.
Hereford Prime stock are killed at a Gore meat plant where carcasses undergo Accelerated Conditioning and Aging (an electrical stimulation process that avoids cold-induced toughening and promotes tenderness). Carcasses are held in a chiller for four or five days and then go to Bowmont Meats cutting plant in Invercargill.
John Flynns father ran a butchers shop in Invercargill, and John expanded the business to supply supermarkets, and took over the cutting plant. His sons also work in the business.
John was part of the formation of Hereford Prime, which over the years has developed into an important part of his business.
We break down carcasses into standard cuts, emphasising high levels of quality and consistency. pH tests are done in Gore, and when carcasses arrived here we also recheck for pH, says John.
pH must be less than 5.8, and we select for good fat colour, meat colour, degree of marbling, and rib-eye area. We vacuum pack cuts in Cryovac, and hold them in the chiller for two weeks before distribution to customers.
Once the meat arrives at restaurants chefs can normally expect a high quality storage life of three weeks. Chiller temperature is all important it has to be between 0 and 2C. Temperature recording kits are often put into the cartons and customers send them back so that Bowmonts can check the temperatures throughout the journey along the cold chain.
Restaurants are the main customers, and Bowmonts send products as far away as Auckland but most are in the South Island.
We supply the top cuts to many first-class restaurants and hotels in Milford, Queenstown, Invercargill, Millbrook, Te Anau, and Dunedin. The less valuable cuts we have no trouble selling to the local butchery trade, says John.
The restaurant industry is very price orientated, and it is very difficult to get them onto this product but once they try it they don't want to go off it. Its really only a matter of 25c to 50c per steak difference but the quality is much higher, we guarantee every bit of product that leaves here.