Sanderson Farms, Inc.

Sanderson Farms, Inc. operates USDA-inspected establishment P45910 at 2076 NC Highway 20 in St Pauls, Robeson County, North Carolina. The federal record lists the plant for poultry slaughter and poultry processing, with a grant of inspection dated May 18, 2017, and a large FSIS size class. Its reported slaughter volume category is 5.0, the highest band in the FSIS scale, and no custom-exempt activity is reported. The establishment record carries several doing-business-as names, including Covington Farms, Sanderson Farms, LLC, Wayne Farms LLC, and Wayne-Sanderson Farms.

The website on file belongs to Wayne-Sanderson Farms, the corporate parent, rather than to the St Pauls plant specifically. That site describes a company formed from two poultry companies with roots in farm supply and feed manufacturing, operating 23 processing and prepared-foods plants, employing more than 26,000 people, and working with about 2,000 contract family farmers across a footprint that runs from North Carolina to Texas. The company describes itself as the nation's third-largest poultry producer.

Company brands named on the site include Sanderson Farms, Naked Truth, Covington Farms, Harrison, Kosmic Krunch, Buffaloos, Fly'n Saucers, Crispy Fliers, Platinum Harvest, Chef's Craft, and Wayne Farms, sold through retail and foodservice channels. No plant-level retail counter, hours, tour information, or direct-to-household sales for the St Pauls location appear in the sources on file. Details beyond the federal record and the corporate website are not yet on file.

This is a large integrated poultry operation, not a custom-exempt processor. The federal record reports no custom-exempt activity, so there is no indication that the plant processes animals owned by outside farmers for return. The corporate website describes contract growing instead: Wayne-Sanderson Farms partners with nearly 2,000 family farmers raising broilers, breeders, and pullets, and states that contracted growers tend birds, track health and growth, follow biosecurity practices, and maintain poultry housing, with support from a flock advisor, veterinarians, and a technical services department. The company reports 1,986 total farms, that about one third of its farmers are in Alabama followed by Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas, that 48 percent have grown with the company for 10 or more years, and that 24 percent are second generation or older. Terms, pay, and housing requirements are not stated in the sources on file. Prospective growers are directed to the company contact page.

Sanderson 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.

The sources describe company brands sold at retail and through foodservice, including Sanderson Farms, described as 100 percent natural, fresh, and never frozen, Naked Truth, and Covington Farms pre-cooked breaded chicken. Nothing in the sources indicates a retail store, farm store, on-site sales counter, online ordering, shipping, or bulk bundles at the St Pauls plant. Household buyers would find these products through grocery and foodservice channels rather than at the establishment.

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.