Watauga Meats and Butchery

Watauga Meats and Butchery, doing business as Watauga Meats Company and trading online as Watauga Butchery, is a very small establishment at 160 Cole Drive in Vilas, Watauga County, North Carolina. It holds establishment number M47294 with a grant of inspection dated October 6, 2022, and reports Meat Processing and Meat Slaughter activities to FSIS. The plant also reports custom-exempt slaughter, meaning it processes animals owned by the customer with packages marked Not for Sale. Species detail is not reported to FSIS. The website describes processing for beef, lamb, and goat, with USDA inspected pork processing listed as coming soon.

The website states the business was founded by farmers in 2020 in response to processing backlogs during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, when local lead times moved from about 4 weeks to 12 months. It describes itself as a USDA inspected custom meat processor in the Appalachian Mountains at just below 3,000 feet elevation. Staff named on the site include head butcher Thomas Fritzinger, shop coordinator Trish Cole, and manager Bob Shipley, a partner in Shipley Farms Beef, a family cattle operation west of Boone connected to R.G. Shipley Sr., a 1980 inductee into the NC Agricultural Hall of Fame.

Two points in the record differ. The plant reports Meat Slaughter activity to FSIS, while its website states it does not currently have its own inspected harvest floor onsite and partners with USDA processors in neighboring counties for harvesting, handling transport to the harvest site and back for cutting and packing. Addresses and phones also differ: the federal record lists 160 Cole Drive with phone (828) 297-9622, while the website lists a main office at 1699 Linville Creek Road, Vilas, phone (828) 484-6328, and notes the Cole Drive plant is closed to the public due to safety concerns, visit by appointment only.

The website states the shop focuses primarily on producers in its membership program, tailored to beef and other meat producers who sell under their own meat handlers' license, with bookings for retail services made available to the public for USDA inspected or custom exempt packing after members' needs are served. A waitlist and membership information are described on the site's Members page. Because there is no inspected harvest floor onsite as described, animals to be packed under inspection for retail sale must be delivered by the producer to the receiving site, and the shop handles transportation to a partner harvest facility in a neighboring county and back for processing. Cut instructions are reviewed a week in advance and must be received on or before the day the animal is delivered for slaughter; a cut sheet template and beef, lamb and goat, and pork cut sheets are posted. The shop states it can now accept beef older than 30 months for inspected processing, with over-30-month carcasses segregated per USDA rules, which adds handling costs and prevents some bone-in cuts. Proof of age documentation is recommended for all beef over 24 months. The site also notes that per North Carolina Department of Agriculture guidelines, on-farm harvest for personal use marked Not for Resale is no longer permissible as of November 16, 2023 without adequate carcass cleaning facilities, and that farmer-harvested carcasses can be received in some circumstances after calling the office. Prices, minimums, and deposits are not stated in the sources.

Watauga Meats and Butchery reports custom-exempt slaughter to FSIS, which means it can process an animal a customer already owns (a whole, half, or share bought before slaughter) and return it in packages marked Not for Sale. Most small farms have one or two plants they book with, and the plant's calendar decides the delivery date.

The sources describe a producer-focused custom and inspected cut and wrap operation, not a retail counter. The plant at 160 Cole Drive is described as closed to the public due to safety concerns, with visits by appointment only. Product is packaged in clear plastic Cryovac with USDA compliant retail labels and returned to customers frozen, with fresh product provided as cooler space allows. No halves or quarters, bundles, shipping, delivery, or online ordering for household buyers are stated in the sources.

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.