Beef

Beef refers to the meat obtained from mature cattle, typically over one year old. The meat tends to have a darker color and a stronger flavor compared to veal. Beef is commonly used in a variety of dishes, such as steaks, roasts, and ground beef.

Veal, on the other hand, comes from young calves, usually around 4 to 16 weeks old. The meat is pale pink in color, tender, and has a milder flavor compared to beef. Veal is often used in dishes like stews, cutlets, and braises.

Have you ever seen a picture of a cow divided up into sections such as Rump, loin shank etc? These large sections of a cow are called primal cuts. From these comes the smaller consumer ready cuts (steaks, roasts etc) that most of us are familiar with. For more about primal cuts and consumer cuts click on the relevant link.

• Prime Cuts
  • Prime rib
  • Eye Fillet

In Australia there is extensive regulations around the processing and selling of meat. The process to slaughter and sell meat involves a lengthy process of obtaining licenses, ensuring facilities meet construction requirements, developing a quality assurance program, and engaging an auditing company. Most farmers contract out parts of the process.

For a farmer to undertake all aspects of the process and sell to the public is not impossible, but is a lot rarer than you might think. In order to actually undertake the end to end proces on farm the farmer iwould be required to hold an Abattoir license. All meat processing facilities and transport vehicles need to be licensed by  This process is extensive and involves multiple aspects such as a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plan, cleaning and maintenance programs, pest control, training, calibration, traceability, and recall programs. All of these steps must be taken before a farmer can legally sell their own slaughtered and butchered meat, making it quite rare for this entire process to be carried out on a single farm.

It is also true that it's not common for all butchering and slaughtering facilities to be in one establishment due to the detailed and specialized nature of each process. More commonly, "farm direct" often means that the farmer has outsourced the slaughtering and butchering but remains at the beginning of the chain, being responsible for growing and raising the livestock, and then selling to the customer.

In terms of sourcing meat, it appears to be more common for farmers to use local butchers, while supermarkets tend to use large-scale butchers or may have in-house butchering. Local butchers often source their meat from local farmers and processors, thereby supporting small businesses and promoting community growth.

The Farmers Lot doesn't sell beef, our vendors do. Vendors may offer meat in your location from time to time. There are a few ways to see if meat is available to you. The easiest way is to look under our fresh-produce category. You can also navigate via the "our sellers" menu item and find a seller close to you, this is a good option if you want to pick-up meat locally but you won't easily find sellors that aren't close but do deliver to you. Another way is to use our search bar, e.g. select for a particular type of meat, or something more generic such as "roast".

In our online farmers market vendors operate independently of each other. Sellors might include farmers, butchers and or general retailers. Some vendors operate a small hobby farm with a variety of animals whilst others may be larger specialising in just beef cattle. Farmers choose to ship meat Australia wide, deliver within a certain area or simply offer pick-up.  

Just like a traditional farmers market the market operator offers a place for anyone to set-up shop and provides a few basic services to the vendor. The vendor deals directly with the customer. Our farmers have complete discretion over business operations. 

Delivery and pick-up options available to you are briefly listed in the product detail screen, you can select from the availables shipping methods at check-out.