Mountaire Farms, Inc.

Mountaire Farms, Inc., establishment M2161+P3, operates a poultry slaughter and processing plant at 29005 John J Williams Highway in Millsboro, Sussex County, Delaware. The plant reports poultry slaughter and poultry processing activities to FSIS and is classified as a large establishment, with a slaughter volume category of 5.0 and a grant of inspection date on file of June 28, 2021. No custom-exempt activity is reported to FSIS, meaning the plant does not report processing animals for return to their owners.

The company website describes Mountaire Farms as an agricultural food production and processing company with almost 10,000 employees and facilities in Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. It states the company is the fourth largest chicken company in the United States, produces about 3 billion pounds of chicken per year, and remains family owned. The site says Mountaire was founded in 1914 by Guy Cameron, that his son Ted joined the business, and that grandson Ronnie joined in 1968 and remains Chairman of the Board. A company post dated June 2026 states Amanda Irwin was promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mountaire's business is wholesale, retail private label and export, not direct farm-gate or over the counter sales. The website describes hand-deboned jumbo bird operations in Delaware and North Carolina delivering fresh and frozen products to 46 states, tray pack retail programs for private label customers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and export to more than 60 countries. Details on any retail counter, custom slaughter for individual farmers, or public sales at the Millsboro location are not on file beyond the federal record and the company website.

The Millsboro plant reports no custom-exempt activity to FSIS, so there is no indication it processes animals for return to an individual farmer or rancher. The company website describes a contract grower model instead, stating that 100 percent of Mountaire's broiler chickens are raised on family-owned farms and pointing growers to its Our Poultry Growers and Feed Mills and Grain Elevators pages. Mountaire's Prime Quality Grain division also buys from and works with Delmarva farmers, and a 2026 company post describes free grain safety and engulfment training sessions for farmers and first responders at the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Company. Booking procedures, minimums, fees and cut and wrap terms are not stated in the sources.

Mountaire Farms, Inc. operates under a federal grant of inspection, so product from this plant can be sold anywhere in the United States, which matters if you sell online or across a state line. FSIS does not list a custom-exempt activity for this plant.

No retail store, farm store or direct shipping to households is described in the sources. The website presents Mountaire as a wholesale supplier and as what it calls the leading producer of private label chicken products in the United States, with tray pack products sold through retail grocery customers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Households would encounter the plant's chicken under grocery store private labels rather than by buying directly. The site also publishes recipes and a Just the Facts section addressing antibiotics, hormones and steroids in chicken.

If you are buying a half or quarter animal, the plant is where the animal is processed; the farm sells you the animal. Read how to buy a half cow for the sequence and the math.