Understanding Our Processing Pricing
A Commitment to Transparency and Fairness.
At FCB, we believe our pricing should be clear, fair, and connected to the work required to properly process your animal.
Processing livestock is a detailed craft involving skilled labor, specialized equipment, and careful handling at every stage. Because of this, we’ve built our pricing structure around the actual value-adding steps involved in processing rather than using one single flat fee.
This approach allows us to be transparent about what goes into the process while ensuring that customers pay fairly for the services they receive.
Why Our Pricing Is Structured the Way It Is
Processing an animal involves many individual steps, each requiring time, skill, equipment, and care. Instead of bundling everything into one large fee, we separate the process into the stages that actually create value.
This helps ensure our pricing is:
-
Transparent
You can clearly see what services are included. -
Fair
Customers only pay for the services that apply to their animal and their cutting instructions. -
Flexible
Every animal and every order is different, so our pricing structure allows us to accommodate a wide range of processing requests.
The 4 Main Components of Processing
Most orders include four main categories of fees.
1. Harvest & Initial Handling
This covers the skilled work required to humanely harvest the animal and properly prepare it for processing.
It includes:
- Live animal care for up to 24 hrs (longer hold times can be arranged but yardage fees would apply)
- Humane harvest
- Organ capture
- Chill
Breaking our pricing down by stage ensures the pricing is fair based on the layers applied to that animal and is handled swiftly, decisively, and professionally from beginning to end of the process.
2. Breaking & Cutting
Once the carcass has properly chilled and aged, our team begins the detailed work of breaking it down into the cuts you’ve requested.
This portion of the process includes:
- Aging the carcass
- Breaking it into primals & trim
- Cutting steaks and roasts
- Vacuum sealing or wrapping
- Labeling and freezing
This base breaking and cutting fee is based on hanging weight, which helps fairly reflect the amount of work required for animals of different sizes.
3. Raw Value-Added Items
Most, but not all, customers choose to have part or all of their animal turned into these common products.
These items require additional labor, equipment, and time, which is why they are priced separately.
Examples include:
- Grinding
- Patties
- Stew Meat
- Fajitas
- Steak Bites
- Steak Kabobs
These Raw Value Added fees are based on cut weight, which helps fairly reflect the amount of work required for that particular product.
4. Raw & Cooked Value-Added Sausage Items
Some customers choose to have part of their animal turned into specialty products.
These items require added skilled labor, ingredients, specialized equipment, and time.
Examples include:
- Sausage
- Sausage Patties
- Snack sticks
- Curing or smoking
- Specialty products
This structure allows customers to customize their order while only paying for the items they choose.
Why We Don’t Use One Flat Processing Fee
Some processors charge one single flat fee for the entire process. While this can seem simpler at first glance, it often means customers end up paying for services they may not actually use.
Because every animal, every set of cutting instructions, every business is different, a flat fee can make it difficult to fairly account for the real amount of work required.
Our approach allows us to better reflect the true work involved in your specific order, creating a more fair and transparent system.
Every Animal and Every Order Is Different
Two animals of the same size can require very different amounts of work depending on the cutting instructions.
For example:
- A customer requesting mostly steaks and roasts will require one type of processing.
- A customer requesting a large amount of sausage, patties, or specialty products requires additional grinding, seasoning, stuffing, and packaging.
- Furthermore, 2 carcasses weighing the same will often yield differently, meaning one has more muscle and the other has more bone. So, to charge the same grinding for each, for example, isn't the most fair model for you, the customer.
Example Beef: 798 lb Hot Hanging Carcass Weight
| FCB's Modular Pricing | Flat Rate Pricing |
| Harvest Fee: $140 | 1 | $140.00 | Flat Rate Kill/Cut/Wrap Fee: $1.30/lb | 798 lbs |
| Processing Fee: $.99/lb | 798 lbs | $790.02 | - | - |
| Grinding Fee: $.25/lb | 310 lbs | $77.50 | - | - |
| Total | - | $1007.52 | Total | $1037.40 |
| In the examples above, note that if the animal yielded more or less trim for grinding, that would fluctuate the total price. If the price is slightly higher, it means the animal yielded well and you got more meat back. If the price is slightly lower, it means the animal yielded less and thus your costs are lower as we didn't have to process it. Flat rate fee schedules can't take these nuances into consideration which is why we've chosen the path of modular pricing. |
By separating these services within our pricing structure, we can ensure that customers pay fairly based on the services they choose as well as the yield from each specific carcass.
Our Commitment to You
We understand that processing an animal is a meaningful investment, whether it’s for your family, your farm, or your customers.
Our goal is not simply to offer the lowest possible price, it’s to provide consistent, high-quality processing with transparency and integrity.
If you ever have questions about how pricing works or how your cutting instructions may impact the final cost, our team is always happy to walk through it with you.
View Our Current Price List
To see the full breakdown of our current processing fees, please review our pricing sheet below.
View the Farm Country Butchery Price List →
If you'd like help estimating the cost of processing your animal, feel free to reach out, we’re always glad to help.