Frequently asked questions

It means the animal is yours before it is processed, and the meat comes back to you for your own use. Maine allows this work to be done without the carcass being inspected the way meat sold at retail must be, on the condition that the finished packages go to the owner rather than into commerce. Every package is marked "not for sale". It is the arrangement almost every farm and homesteader in the state uses to get their own animals cut.

No. Custom-exempt meat is for the owner of the animal, their household, their non-paying guests and their employees. If you want to sell meat by the cut, the animal has to go through an inspected plant instead — that is a different service and a different set of rules.

Yes. Perry Butcher Co. provides custom-exempt beef processing for customer-owned cattle.

Yes, whole and half hogs. Perry Butcher Co. provides custom-exempt pork processing for customer-owned swine.

Call. Processing dates depend on the season and on what is already on the schedule, and autumn is busier than spring almost everywhere in Maine. The shop can tell you what is realistic for the animal you have.

Before your processing date, and ideally before you have to think about it under pressure. The sheet on this site works in your browser and prints cleanly, so you can sit down with it at the kitchen table, work through one primal at a time, and bring the printed page with you.

No. It is a planning tool. Downloading your PDF sends nothing to anyone — it is built in your own browser and stays on your device. You must contact Perry Butcher Co. yourself to review the sheet. It does not place an order, reserve a date, finalize cuts or fix a price, and all displayed prices are estimates subject to change.

They go to ground unless you say otherwise. That is the standard default, and it is why the ground beef from your own animal usually tastes better than what you buy — it is made from trim off the whole carcass rather than from one muscle.

Ask as early as you can. Once a carcass has been broken down, some choices cannot be walked back. You cannot turn ground beef back into a roast. Call the shop as soon as you know.

You buy an ownership interest in a live animal, and then that animal is custom processed for the people who own it. The order matters: under Maine guidance the ownership has to be arranged while the animal is alive, before slaughter. Once it is yours, you choose your cuts on a cut sheet and collect your portion.

It depends on your freezer more than your appetite. Call the shop. Share sizes, what is available and how they are priced change with what is on hand, and they can tell you what is coming up.

Splitting shares between households is common. Talk it through with the shop first so the ownership is arranged properly before processing, and so both households know how the cuts will be divided.

Yes. Fresh Maine lobster is a regular part of what Perry Butcher Co. sells, in Waterboro, with no drive to the coast required.

Both. Take them live to cook at home, or ask to have them steamed when you place your order so they leave the shop ready to eat. Mention steaming when you order — how much notice the shop needs depends on the day.

Chix, quarters, halves and Jumbos: the four standard Maine market sizes, smallest to largest. Which of them are in the tank on a given day depends on what is coming in, so call ahead if you need a particular size.

Yes, when it is available. It saves you the cracking, which matters if you are making rolls for a crowd.

Yes, when they are available. Steamers and lobster are the two halves of the same meal for most people.

Yes, and it is worth the thirty seconds. Seafood is bought and sold at market price and what is in the tank changes day to day. One call tells you what is there and what it costs before you make the drive.

303 Main St, East Waterboro, ME 04030, in York County. The shop is on Main Street with parking in front and the entrance signed off the lot.

Contact the shop. Processing rates, share pricing and seafood all move for different reasons. Seafood moves with the market, processing with the animal and the work involved — so a number published on a website is out of date the week after it goes up. Ask and you will get a straight answer.