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

The couple left behind their butcher business of more than 20 years to try their hand at running a professional barbecue business.

A rise in cattle prices and the impact of the drought were encouragement enough for Mr Keyte to switch professions, with a side hustle of catering at the local markets, including cooking steak sandwiches, helping to cover the costs.

These pressures from the drought on their butchery included increased costs and reduced availability of bodies from processing 12 a week back to four to five.

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 in early June.

He said demand for his new business quickly escalated.

Before they knew it, their catering got nearly as busy as their butcher shop had been, with only a few free weekends left on a busy calendar.

But it wasn't until they attended an event called Meatstock in Sydney - nearly a year into their catering venture - that they realised they had to let the butcher shop go.

Meatstock is best described as a butcher and barbecue product showcase, with many food stalls and a BBQ Wars Competition.

This is where their love for the "low and slow" barbecue style emerged.

They said the quality of food 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- to 440-kilogram range, which usually yielded about 54 per cent.

They allowed for a loss of roughly 45 per cent "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 barbecue/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 the New England and 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," he said.

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