Selling Beef commercially ...

SkizzlePig · #1 06/13/06, 10:46 PM

My DW and I are considering raising beef cattle on our future land and we want our farm to be as self-sufficient as possible. To that end, I'd like to know more about the pains in the butt and the pains in the wallet that are incurred as a result of getting a license to sell beef.

All I know is that it involves a USDA inspection during the slaughter and/or butchering and most people I talk to are less than interested about getting a license. Of course, none of them can give me any real facts, so it could be that they don't know either.

So ... what does it take? Based on that, I guess we'll have to determine if it's worth it.

Also, if we get a license (and I could be using the wrong terminology) to sell beef, does that transfer to selling lamb and pork and ...

Thanks a bunch for any help ...

Christiaan · #2 06/14/06, 01:07 AM

You don't need a license for beef, what you need is to have the beef inspected before you sell it. USDA inspects meat for interstate sale. Meat for intrastate sale will be inspected by the state or contracted to the USDA. As for business licenses, facility inspections, value-added processes, that all varies from state to state and county to county. Contact your state Ag dept or your county extension service for particulars.

unioncreek · #3 06/14/06, 09:11 AM

The way I do it is sell a quarter, half or whole beef to someone after it has been slaughtered. They then have it cut up to their specs, they pay me for the beef and the butcher for the cut and wrap. You don't need to have it inspected and they really need a license. You can't sell beef cut and wrapped to someone unless it has a USDA inspected stamp on it.

Bobg

Jena · #4 06/14/06, 02:33 PM

Here in Illinois, I paid $50 for a meat broker's license. This allowed me to sell any meat that was "pre-packaged" at an inspected facility. My own beef was pre-packaged, because when I picked it up, it was already packaged. I was not allowed to label, or package anything myself.
The health department also had requirements which I had to comply with.

All in all, it was easy. Much easier than I thought it would be going in.

Jena

JulieLou42 · #5 06/17/06, 02:41 AM

Here in Idaho, I worked it out between the slaughterer-processing house and my buyer. He figured out the total money to process the whole steer -- 788lbs hung-- knew that I had a buyer for half of that, and cut and wrapped to both of our specifications for each side of him. I collected half the money from my buyer, and paid for the costs of the entire process from the sale price and had money almost enough for a 23cf upright freezer to store our side of the steer in. No biggie!