This guide is about the process, not legal advice. How beef may be sold and labeled, as inspected cuts or as custom-exempt halves and quarters, is set by the USDA, your state and your processor. Ask them before you change how you sell.
In short
- Sell halves and quarters against a processing date, with a deposit.
- Collect one cut sheet per half before the processor's deadline.
- Bill the balance from the hanging weight, and book the pickup with the bill.
Start from the processing date
Your processor's calendar sets the season. Book the dates first, then sell halves and quarters against each date, so you never promise more beef than you have going. When a date is full, buyers go on a waitlist for the next one.
A deposit holds the spot
A deposit turns a maybe into a reservation. Take it online with the reservation, record it against the buyer's half, and say in writing what happens to it if the buyer cancels. That policy is yours to set; the system applies it the same way every time.
One cut sheet per half
Each half or quarter gets its own cut sheet, filled in by the buyer: which steaks and how thick, roasts or ground, which extras to keep, how it is wrapped. If two families share a half, they agree on one sheet, or ask the processor whether it can be cut two ways. Send a reminder before the deadline and read every sheet before it goes, so nobody is guessing on cutting day.
Bill on the hanging weight
Many ranches price a half per pound of hanging weight: the weight of the carcass before it is cut and wrapped. When the processor sends the weights, each final bill is that weight times your price, less the deposit. Decide once whether the processing fee is on your bill or paid to the processor, and show it the same way on every bill.
| Step | Who | When | What it needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reservation and deposit | The buyer, online | Months ahead | A processing date with room left |
| Cut sheet | The buyer | Before the processor's deadline | A reminder, and someone to read it |
| Processing | The processor | The booked date | The animal, and every cut sheet for it |
| Hanging weight | The processor, then you | Soon after processing | The weight entered against each half |
| Final bill | You | When the weights are in | Your price per pound, less the deposit |
| Pickup | The buyer | Once it is cut, wrapped and frozen | A booked time and a list of boxes |
Pickup without the scramble
Send the final bill with a link to book a pickup time, so buyers do not all arrive at once. Take the balance before pickup, check the boxes off as they go, and keep a short list of what is still in the freezer and whose it is.
The freezer and the market
Beef you sell by the cut lives in the freezer as stock. Counted by cut, the same count can sell on your website and at the farmers market table, so the last brisket is not sold twice. Which beef can be sold by the cut, and how it must be labeled, depends on how it was processed: the USDA, your state and your processor decide that.
What to keep on each half
The buyer, the animal's tag, the processing date, the cut sheet, the hanging weight, the bill and the pickup. That one record answers most questions, from buyers and from the processor. The animal's own record, from birth to the processing date, is the subject of the herd records guide.
Next season starts at pickup
Ask each buyer at pickup whether they want beef next year, and offer last year's buyers the first dates. A waitlist kept with the reservations can be offered each opening in order, instead of from a notebook.
