Our state (WA) has lots of small processors that are USDA licensed, but they're only set up to process maybe 10-20 animals a day, not hundreds.
That's how we buy all our meat, we buy a whole or half hog directly from a farmer, who raises them on pasture with no hormones or weird feed. He tells us when the processing day is, we call the local butcher beforehand to discuss cuts, and the butcher calls us when it's ready, and they want us to pick it up ASAP to make room in their freezer.
We love doing it this way - they're slaughtered on the farm which I feel is more humane than a long ride crammed in a trailer to a huge slaughterhouse, it's fresher, healthier and tastier than anything you can get in the supermarket, and it actually works out to be cheaper.
This year we also bought a sheep for the freezer. Our local high school's FFA raised pigs and sheep, but the Spring fair where they usually auction their animals was cancelled - the poor kids were so disappointed. So they had an online auction.
For many people there's disadvantages though, given how we've been trained to behave as consumers: 1. Typically, most people don't have a freezer that can hold a whole animal 2. People have become used to buying what they want when they want it, so waiting until the meat's ready and scheduling a time to pick it up takes some adjustment. 3. Planning meals to use all the cuts, instead of just buying a pack of bacon when you want it, takes some adjustment too 4. It's a big outlay of money all at once, even though you end up saving in the end.
I'm not sure of all the laws here, but I do know that for poultry, if you keep less than 1000 animals at any time, you can process them at home for resale by the whole animal, to individuals, farm stands or restaurants - you can even rent a mobile processing unit for this purpose from the county extension. For larger animals, the processing has to be USDA licensed, but I don't know the details - at least when we pick up our meat from the butcher, all the packages are stamped with the butcher's name and "not for resale" so it seems like there's some leeway when you're buying individual animals for your own consumption.
Just a guess, but it might have to do with being able to track every stage of where the meat came from if somebody got sick.
That's how we buy all our meat, we buy a whole or half hog directly from a farmer, who raises them on pasture with no hormones or weird feed. He tells us when the processing day is, we call the local butcher beforehand to discuss cuts, and the butcher calls us when it's ready, and they want us to pick it up ASAP to make room in their freezer.
We love doing it this way - they're slaughtered on the farm which I feel is more humane than a long ride crammed in a trailer to a huge slaughterhouse, it's fresher, healthier and tastier than anything you can get in the supermarket, and it actually works out to be cheaper.
This year we also bought a sheep for the freezer. Our local high school's FFA raised pigs and sheep, but the Spring fair where they usually auction their animals was cancelled - the poor kids were so disappointed. So they had an online auction.
For many people there's disadvantages though, given how we've been trained to behave as consumers: 1. Typically, most people don't have a freezer that can hold a whole animal 2. People have become used to buying what they want when they want it, so waiting until the meat's ready and scheduling a time to pick it up takes some adjustment. 3. Planning meals to use all the cuts, instead of just buying a pack of bacon when you want it, takes some adjustment too 4. It's a big outlay of money all at once, even though you end up saving in the end.
I'm not sure of all the laws here, but I do know that for poultry, if you keep less than 1000 animals at any time, you can process them at home for resale by the whole animal, to individuals, farm stands or restaurants - you can even rent a mobile processing unit for this purpose from the county extension. For larger animals, the processing has to be USDA licensed, but I don't know the details - at least when we pick up our meat from the butcher, all the packages are stamped with the butcher's name and "not for resale" so it seems like there's some leeway when you're buying individual animals for your own consumption.
Just a guess, but it might have to do with being able to track every stage of where the meat came from if somebody got sick.
