Reference

Glossary

The vocabulary of buying meat from a farm, defined the way the rules define it. Each entry is written to stand on its own.

Amenable species: The animals federal law requires to be inspected when sold as meat: cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equines, plus chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, guineas, ratites, and squab. Bison, elk, deer, and rabbit are non-amenable and are inspected only under a voluntary, fee-for-service program.; See also: Voluntary inspection
Animal share (or herd share): Buying an ownership interest in a live animal, typically a half, a quarter, or an eighth, before it goes to a custom-exempt processor. Because the buyer owns part of the animal, the meat is legally theirs. Some states limit how many owners one animal can have.; See also: Custom-exempt, Hanging weight
Animal Welfare Approved (AWA): A certification from A Greener World for independent farms raising animals on pasture or range. Its standards are among the strictest in the market, including a requirement that animals live outdoors for their whole lives.; See also: Certified Humane
Certified Humane: A third-party animal welfare certification from Humane Farm Animal Care with published standards for space, handling, and slaughter. It is audited annually and is one of the few welfare claims backed by an inspection.; See also: Animal Welfare Approved (AWA), Pasture-raised
Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS): A federal program that lets selected state-inspected plants with 25 or fewer employees ship meat across state lines under a federal mark. Eleven states participate as of mid-2026: Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin.; See also: State inspected
Country of origin labeling (COOL): Federal rules requiring origin labels on certain foods at retail. Mandatory COOL for beef and pork was repealed in 2015 after a World Trade Organization ruling, which is why most retail beef today carries no origin statement at all unless the packer chooses to add one.; See also: Product of USA
Custom-exempt: Slaughter or processing of an animal for the exclusive use of its owner, the owner's household, and non-paying guests, performed without an inspector present. Custom-exempt meat is stamped Not for Sale and cannot be sold by the cut, which is why bulk beef is sold as a live animal or a share of one before slaughter.; See also: Animal share (or herd share), Not for Sale
Cut sheet: The order form the processor uses to cut your animal: steak thickness, roast size, ground beef package size, which cuts to keep bone-in, and whether you want organs, bones, and fat. Filling it out badly is the most common bulk-buying mistake.; See also: Take-home weight
Dry-aged: Beef held uncovered in a temperature and humidity controlled cooler for two to six weeks or more, concentrating flavor and tenderizing the meat while it loses 15 to 30 percent of its weight to evaporation and trim. Wet-aged beef ages in its vacuum bag and loses almost nothing.
Establishment number: The unique ID assigned to every federally inspected plant, printed inside the USDA inspection mark as EST. followed by a number, with M for meat, P for poultry, and V for voluntary inspection. You can look any number up in the FSIS directory to see where a package was processed.; See also: Federally inspected
Federally inspected: Meat or poultry processed under continuous USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) inspection at a plant holding a federal grant of inspection. Federally inspected product can be sold anywhere in the United States and carries the round USDA mark with the plant's establishment number.; See also: Establishment number, State inspected
Grain-finished: Cattle raised on pasture and then fed a grain ration, typically corn, for the last 90 to 200 days to add marbling and weight. Most conventional and many small-farm beef programs are grain-finished; it is a different product, not a lesser one.; See also: Grass-finished
Grass-fed: A label claim meaning the animal ate grass and forage; under FSIS labeling policy the claim must be supported by documentation, but it does not by itself mean the animal was never fed grain. Ask whether the animal was grass-finished.; See also: Grass-finished, Grain-finished
Grass-finished: The animal ate only grass and forage for its entire life, including the final months before slaughter, with no grain finishing. This is the stricter claim and the one most buyers mean when they say grass-fed.; See also: Grass-fed
Hanging weight: The weight of the dressed carcass after slaughter, before it is cut and trimmed. Also called hot carcass weight. Most farms price a half or whole beef by hanging weight; a 1,250-pound steer typically hangs around 750 to 780 pounds.; See also: Live weight, Take-home weight
Kill fee (slaughter fee): The flat charge for slaughtering the animal, separate from cutting and wrapping. Typical 2026 kill fees run from about 75 to 150 dollars for beef, often split between the buyers of a shared animal.; See also: Processing fee (cut and wrap)
Lean beef trimmings: The 90 to 95 percent lean beef left after primal cuts are removed, blended with fattier domestic trim to make ground beef. Nearly all beef the United States imports from Argentina, Australia, and Brazil is lean trim destined for grinding, not steaks.; See also: Tariff-rate quota (TRQ)
Live weight: What the animal weighs on the hoof. Beef cattle usually dress at 60 to 64 percent of live weight, so a 1,300-pound steer hangs at roughly 800 pounds.; See also: Hanging weight
Not for Sale: The mark federal rules require on every package of custom-exempt meat. It does not mean the meat is unsafe or unregulated; custom plants are reviewed by FSIS or the state. It means the meat belongs to the person who owned the animal and cannot be resold.; See also: Custom-exempt
Pasture-raised: The animal lived on pasture with continuous access to the outdoors. The term is not defined by USDA for meat, so it means only what the farm can document. Third-party certifications like Certified Humane and Animal Welfare Approved set specific pasture requirements.; See also: Certified Humane, Animal Welfare Approved (AWA)
Poultry producer exemption: Federal rules that let a farm slaughter and sell up to 1,000 birds a year of its own raising with almost no inspection requirements, and up to 20,000 birds a year under a somewhat stricter exemption. Many states add their own conditions on where those birds can be sold.; See also: Custom-exempt
Primal cut: One of the large sections a carcass is first broken into: chuck, rib, loin, round, brisket, plate, flank, and shank for beef. Every retail cut comes from one primal, which is why a half beef always includes cuts from every part of the animal.; See also: Cut sheet
Processing fee (cut and wrap): The per-pound charge, usually on hanging weight, for cutting, grinding, wrapping, and freezing the carcass. Expect roughly 0.90 to 1.50 dollars per pound in most of the country in 2026, with extra charges for smoking, curing, or vacuum sealing.; See also: Kill fee (slaughter fee), Hanging weight
Product of USA: A voluntary label claim that, since January 1, 2026, may only be used on meat, poultry, and egg products from animals born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the United States. Before that date, imported meat that was merely processed in a U.S. plant could carry the label.; See also: Country of origin labeling (COOL)
Regenerative agriculture: Grazing and cropping practices aimed at building soil, retaining water, and increasing biodiversity, typically through managed rotational grazing. There is no federal definition; third-party programs such as Regenerative Organic Certified and Land to Market audit specific outcomes.; See also: Pasture-raised
Retail-exempt: A butcher shop or grocery that cuts and grinds inspected meat for sale directly to consumers without an inspector on site. Retail-exempt shops can only start from inspected carcasses or cuts and are limited in how much they may sell to restaurants and other businesses.; See also: Federally inspected
State inspected: Meat processed at a plant inspected by a state meat and poultry inspection program that FSIS has certified as at least equal to federal inspection. Thirty states run one as of 2026: the 27 long-standing programs plus Oregon (2022), Arkansas (2022), and Nevada (2025). State-inspected meat may only be sold within that state unless the plant is in the Cooperative Interstate Shipment program.; See also: Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS), Federally inspected
Take-home weight: The packaged meat you actually receive, usually 55 to 65 percent of hanging weight for beef depending on how much bone-in product and fat you keep. This is the number to divide your total cost by to get a true price per pound.; See also: Hanging weight, Cut sheet
Tariff-rate quota (TRQ): A trade rule allowing a set quantity of a product to be imported at a low tariff, with a much higher tariff on anything above that amount. The 2026 beef quota for Argentina was raised from 20,000 to 100,000 metric tons under this system.; See also: Lean beef trimmings
USDA Organic: A certification that the animal was fed 100 percent organic feed, was not given antibiotics or hormones, and had year-round outdoor access. Organic does not mean grass-finished; organic beef can be grain-finished on organic grain.; See also: Grass-finished
Voluntary inspection: Fee-for-service USDA inspection of non-amenable species such as bison, elk, and rabbit under the Agricultural Marketing Act. Plants with a V in their establishment number hold a voluntary grant. Without it, these species can be sold under state rules that vary widely.; See also: Amenable species

Need the rule itself? Start with our guide to USDA, state, and custom-exempt inspection.