Smo-King business a high for Inverell's Keyte family

A rise in cattle prices and the impact of the drought helped Mr Keyte manage the change from running a butcher shop in Inverell to catering at the local markets, cooking steak sandwiches to help cover costs.

These pressures on their business from drought and increased costs included a decline from processing 12 bodies a week back to four to five carcases a week. Something had to give.

Mr Keyte and his wife Sigourney were speakers and caterers for the Local Land Services' seventh annual North West Beef Producers Forum, held in Warialda. The forum aims to deliver resources and information and provide opportunities to advance the business of of beef production.

He said the change in business direction they experienced quickly escalated. Before they knew it, their catering business was nearly as busy as the butcher shop, with only a few free weekends left on a busy calendar.

He said the couple had their epiphany after nearly a year of the steak sandwich business when they attended an event called Meatstock in Sydney.

Meatstock is best described as a butcher and barbecue product showcase, with many food stalls and a BBQ Wars Competition. It's like that 1970s music festival Woodstock, but this one is beefed up to the max.

This is where their love for 'Low and Slow BBQ' emerged. They said the quality of food on offer and the opportunities to meet with some industry characters gave them the sense they were on the right track for a business opportunity to value-add their meat retail business.

It also helped to alter their mindset as butchers encountering difficulties producing and processing their cattle.

Even though there was an abattoir in Inverell, cattle the Keytes had bought for the shop had to go to Casino or Kempsey for processing, with the cost of freight adding seemingly unnecessary costs.

He said they liked to buy cattle in the 420 kilograms to 440-kilogram weight range, which usually yielded around 54 per cent.

He added that there was a roughly 45 pc loss "even before we put our knife into the carcase". "and then we'd lose a third more in the cutting process," he added.

With the acquisition of a large barbecue not long after their first visit to Meatstock, the Keytes were the proud owners of Big Bertha, a 90-centimetre diametre offset smoker on a trailer built at the end of 2017.

Today, the BBQ/smoker trailer is a self-contained smoking chamber/warmer and two sinks with running hot water, lights, and a stainless steel workbench with storage.

One of the essential changes for the Keytes with their new business was the type of meats they cooked.

"With a barbecue, the secondary cuts, like brisket, are the ones really taking off, he said.

"The biggest benefit for our smokers is my butcher skills; I make all the cuts myself.

These days, they use 9-score fullblood Wagyu briskets for the meat quality.

"The Wagyu fat just dissolves in the smoker," he said. "We still make a scotch fillet product for everyday eating. But we only use Angus, which has been finished out of Rangers Valley (feedlot).

Their range from Inverell is a radius of about 300 kilometres south to Newcastle, up into southern Queensland, and across New England and the North West.

As for a favourite cut? Mr Keyte said slow-cooked beef cheeks would be his personal favourite.

"It's harder to cook but it's really rewarding.

A whole beef shin, slow-cooked for 14 to 15 hours,, is also really good," he added.