What you Need To Know

Question:  How do I schedule my animal for processing? 

Answer: Please give Rachel a call at 570.442.1445.  Please be advised our schedule fills up very fast, so allow 6-9 months ahead of your slaughter request date.  We can put you on our waiting list if we do not have an appointment available for you.

Question:  Do our animals have to be clean upon arrival?
Answer:  Yes! Please do not bring your animals to us filthy and dirty with an excess of manure on them.  If you do, we must take additional time to clean the animal before and after it enters the knock pen.  Please understand the dirtier the animal, the more likely contamination can occur.  If we feel your animal makes the list of dirty animals, you will be charged an extra $100 more for the slaughtering process. We will inform you of this extra cost at time of drop off.

PICTURES OF ANIMALS THAT WERE CHARGED AN UPGRADE FEE FOR MANURE

Question:  How do I get my farm LOGO or Private Label on my packages? 

Answer:  Give us a call to discuss this request.  We offer many different types of labeling using state of the art in house label printing.  We charge a $50 fee for setup and you must approve the proof we send you prior to packaging your animal.  Private labels are only for USDA customers.

Question:  Do you process only USDA animals? 

Answer:  All animals are slaughtered under inspection at Waldron Custom Meats.  If you have scheduled a Custom Exempt slot with Rachel then the animal will not be processed under inspection.  Full disclosure; we have an extremely limited number of "custom" slots available.

Question:  How do I know if my animal requires USDA processing? 

Answer:  The answer to this is on the USDA/FSIS website.  The link is below.  The short answer is if you own the LIVE animal before slaughter and it is for yours or your family's consumption it can be processed under custom exemption.  There are some other caveats which can be answered in the link:  https://www.fsis.usda.gov/guidelines/2018-0007

Question:  What if I have to cancel my appointment?

Answer:  Please give us a call as soon as you feel the need to cancel your slot appointment.  There is a $100 cancellation fee if your appointment is canceled within 2 weeks of your drop off date.  If you refuse to pay that invoice you will no longer be welcome at our facility.  Some farmers and producers have slots scheduled for animals that aren't born yet.  Please be considerate when making your appointment as there are a lot of people that can't get in due to high demand.

Question:  When can we drop the animals off?

Answer:  Drop off is Tuesday between 12-4pm unless otherwise directed by our staff. 

Question:  What type of trailer should I use to bring my animals in?

Answer:   Any 20' long or less goose-neck cattle or livestock trailer should be sufficient.  If you are bringing a bumper pull please limit yourself to 18'.  We are equipped for the animals to be unloaded using a slide door on the rear of the trailer.  We can not accept any trailers that use only a drop gate.  Pickup trucks are not allowed at this time.  If you need to borrow or rent a livestock trailer let us know and we can put you in touch with a hauler.

Question:  How long do I have to pick up my meat?

Answer:  We allow up to 5 days to pickup without penalty.  After 5 days we add an additional $25/day freezer storage fee.  If you chose to not pick up your order within 2 weeks we will contact the owner or farmer/producer again to inform that they will have 48 hours to pick up the order or we will dispose of it to make room for other orders already in the pipeline.  If that seems unfair to you then pick up your order within 5 days of receiving a call that it is ready to pick up.  Weekends are included in the assessment penalty.  If you need to make alternate arrangements for pickup such as after hours or weekends please call ahead of time to request that.  Please be considerate that most customers are waiting up to 2 years now to get into our facility and making proper arrangements for pickup is part of raising the animal.

Question:  When do you need our cut sheets?
Answer:  We need your cut sheet when you bring your animal.  We use the cut sheet/s during the processing of your animal and stays with the carcass the entire way through to the freezer.  If you neglect to give us a cut sheet during drop-off, we reserve the right to fill one out for you based on our default specifications.  We also will not wait any longer for cut sheets to arrive,  backing up our schedule. Please don't force us into this situation.  

Question:  How long do you hang/age the animals?
Answer:  Hogs 3-5 days.  Beef 14-18 days.  We aim to hang all beef for 14 days( 2 weeks) however the USDA limits our hours of operation to an 8 hour day, therefore scheduling can be hectic so we allow some wiggle room.   Beef that is to be all ground will usually hang for 3-5 days.

Question:  Can I request my beef hang longer?
Answer:  Yes,  on the rail we charge a $10 per day fee per animal.  We also offer our aging services for rib and short loin primals at $.75/day per pound rate.  We have a state of the art aging box where we can age your steaks for as long as you want.  Please inquire within for availability.

Question:  Will we be charged extra if our animals hang in too heavy or are too light?
Answer:  Yes,  $100 added charge for all over weights for beef and hogs only.  Underweights will be charged the underweight minimum regardless of how light it is.

Beef - Min 400 lbs  Max-950 lbs   

Pigs - Min-150 lbs   Max -300 lbs   

Question: How much will our carcass yield?

Answer:  Yields will vary depending on how your animal was finished, IF it was finished and how it was raised.  We have estimated yield ratios on our cut sheets page.  Please note that these are estimates based on properly finished carcasses.

Question:  Do you offer pickup or delivery?

Answer:  No

Question:  Do I get Organs/Tail?

Answer:  If you request organs/tail on your cut sheet and we have your cut sheet at the time of slaughter the answer is yes.  If we don't have your cut sheet to indicate organs we do not keep them.  The more heat we put in the coolers the harder and longer our chilling equipment has to work.  We do not add extra heat to the coolers if we don't have to.

Question:  Are there any additional fees?

Answer:  There are fees that are out of our control that we can not "take on the chin".  Waldron Custom Meats, reserves the right to change, alter, or add any fees we see fit without the approval of the customer.  In short, if a fee is added that we can not control, such as fuel surcharges, compliance charges, material fees and/or additional rendering fees, we pass that along to the customer.  We do our best to absorb as much as we can and if fees are attached to your bill that you do not understand we will be happy to explain to you why.  We make every effort if this were to happen to be upfront and transparent about the costs associated with your animals' processing.