How to Find a USDA Processor Near You: The FSIS Directory, Decoded

First, the registry finder: enter a ZIP code, pick the species, and read the list by distance with phone numbers and the custom-exempt flag. Second, the state pages under the processor index, one per state, listing every inspected slaughter plant with its establishment number and services. Third, the FSIS directory itself, which you should use to verify anything that matters: FSIS publishes the directory as PDF and CSV files sorted by establishment name and by number, plus a demographic data file with the activity and exemption fields we use. If a plant is not in the FSIS directory under a meat or poultry grant, it is not a USDA-inspected plant, whatever the sign says.

FSIS describes the directory as a listing of establishments that produce meat, poultry, or egg products regulated by the agency, updated weekly with each edition replacing the last. Each record carries the establishment number, name, address, phone, and the activities the plant is approved for: meat slaughter, meat processing, poultry slaughter, poultry processing, egg products, import, identification warehouse, and voluntary inspection. The companion Establishment Demographic Data file adds size class, species slaughtered by category, and the exemption fields, including whether the plant conducts custom-exempt slaughter or processing and retail-exempt sales alongside its inspected work.

Our registry joins the two files on establishment number, keeps only records with a slaughter activity in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and shows the pull date on every page. Processing-only plants (cutting and packaging without slaughter) are not in the registry because they cannot take a live animal.

FSIS assigns a number for each grant of inspection a plant holds, current or past, with a prefix indicating the grant type: M for meat, P for poultry, G for egg products, I for import inspection, and V for voluntary inspection of species the Acts do not cover. A plant that slaughters both cattle and chickens holds two grants and shows two numbers, often the same digits with different prefixes. The number is printed inside the round inspection legend on every package under 9 CFR 312.2, which requires it to be applied mechanically, never by hand stamp, in a size large enough to be conspicuous and legible.

The number on the package identifies the plant that prepared the product, not the farm that raised the animal. Beef raised in one state and processed in another carries the processor's number, which is why the number is a processing fact, not an origin fact. The prefix and digit patterns are explained in how to read a USDA establishment number, and each record in our registry shows the number exactly as FSIS lists it, including combined numbers where a plant holds several grants.

Under 9 CFR 304.1, every person conducting operations at an establishment subject to the Federal Meat Inspection Act must apply to FSIS for inspection before it is granted, using the agency's official forms and listing the trade names the plant will use on labels. FSIS's guidance on applying identifies the application as FSIS Form 5200-2 together with an hours-of-operation request. Under 9 CFR 304.3, inspection is not granted until the plant has written Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures under part 416, written recall procedures under part 418, and a hazard analysis with a validated HACCP plan under part 417, with a conditional grant of up to 90 days allowed to finish validation. Once granted, FSIS stations inspection program personnel at the plant during approved hours; under 9 CFR 307.5 the plant reimburses the agency only for inspection on holidays or beyond 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week.

The grant is what allows the plant to sell, or to process for sale, meat in commerce. Every animal slaughtered under the grant receives ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection, and every package carries the legend with the establishment number. This is the definition of USDA-inspected meat, and it is the requirement for anything sold by the cut across state lines.

Many small inspected plants also do custom-exempt work: they slaughter animals owned by households under 9 CFR 303.1(a)(2), outside the grant, and mark that product Not for Sale under 9 CFR 316.16. The FSIS demographic data records this as separate fields for custom-exempt slaughter and custom-exempt processing, and FSIS Directive 8160.1 (Revision 1, September 28, 2020) directs inspection personnel to review the custom-exempt side of an official establishment during the calendar year when the annual Public Health Information System task is issued, and requires the plant to keep custom product separated from inspected product by time or space. Those dual plants are the ideal half-cow processors because you can choose either path with the same operator.

The three inspection paths and what each lets a farm sell are compared in USDA vs state vs custom-exempt; the custom side is explained in full in custom-exempt slaughter explained.

Each plant page in the registry shows the FSIS establishment number, the name and any doing-business-as names, the street address and county, the phone number from the directory, the FSIS size class, the species the demographic data flags for slaughter, and a services list derived from the activities and exemption fields: USDA-inspected livestock slaughter, USDA-inspected poultry slaughter, meat processing, voluntary slaughter of non-amenable species such as bison or elk, custom-exempt slaughter, custom-exempt processing, and retail-exempt sales. The pull date is printed so you know the vintage.

Read the species flags before you call. A plant flagged for steers and heifers but not for sheep will not take your lamb. A plant flagged for voluntary slaughter is the one for bison, which the Federal Meat Inspection Act does not cover and which is inspected only on a fee basis under the V grant (see buying bison direct). And a plant with no custom-exempt flag may still cut a half for you, but the animal will go through inspection and the packages will carry the legend rather than Not for Sale.

University of Missouri Extension's 2026 revision of its direct-purchase guide tells buyers to contact the processor as early as possible and warns that dates may need to be scheduled several months to a year in advance depending on demand. Cornell Cooperative Extension notes that custom-exempt plants typically run shorter waiting lists than USDA plants, one reason farms route halves through them.

The practical rule: book the plant date first, then buy the animal to match it. A farm that has a standing block of dates at a plant is worth more to you than a farm with a cheaper price and no date.

Then take the farm names to how to find a local farm that sells meat and the interview in questions to ask a farmer. The plant will be the one that tells you your hanging weight, so the arithmetic in how to buy a half cow starts with its scale ticket.