Step zero
Before the three rules, the bigger gap.
Of the 397 farms we track, 252 publish no price signal at all — no rate, no cut list, nothing a buyer can read before calling. If that’s you, publishing any price, even an imperfect one, is the single biggest lever you have. It moves you from invisible to listed.
The three rules below aren’t about clearing a high bar. They’re the difference between a price that’s merely listed on your farm page and one that’s comparable — sortable against every other farm that got the same three details right.
The three rules
What makes a price comparable.
These aren’t editorial preferences. They’re the exact conditions our comparison logic checks before a price is allowed into the strict comparison table. Miss one and the price still shows on your farm page — it just won’t sort against anyone else’s.
The comparison also requires a positive per-pound rate and a complete full-cost figure derived from the source. Those are data checks; the three details below are what a farm can change in its published wording.
State the weight the rate is based on.
Say the rate is per pound hanging weight — also called carcass weight, hot weight, or HCW. That’s the carcass before cutting, trimming, and packaging, and it’s the one basis every comparable price on the site shares. If your rate is actually per pound live weight or per pound of packaged, take-home meat, say that instead. We won’t guess which one you mean: a price with no stated weight basis is treated the same as one we can’t compare, not quietly assumed to be hanging weight.
Name the share size or sizes the rate covers.
Say whole, half, quarter, or eighth — whichever your rate applies to. “Prices vary,” “call for pricing,” or a size list with no rate attached to any one of them doesn’t tell a buyer what they’d pay, so it can’t be compared. If every size costs the same, say so plainly (for example, the same rate for a quarter, half, or whole). If each size has its own rate, give each size its own sentence with its own number, rather than folding several sizes and prices into one line that doesn’t say which price goes with which size.
Say what processing costs.
Say processing is included in the rate, or state the exact processing cost per pound. “Processing is billed separately,” with no number attached, is the single most common reason a farm’s price can’t be compared — it’s a real cost a buyer will pay, and without a figure we have no honest way to add it to your rate.
Before and after
The same information, stated so it compares.
Before
“Quarter, half, and whole beef available, prices vary.”
After
“$X.XX per pound hanging weight for a half or whole share. Processing is included.”
The $X.XX is a placeholder, not a suggested price — swap in your own rate. What changed isn’t the price, it’s what the sentence commits to: one weight basis, one or more named share sizes, and a stated processing position. That’s all three rules in two sentences.
What changes
What changes on the site.
- Your price appears in the strict comparison on /prices/, alongside every other farm that meets the same three conditions.
- A future change to that price becomes eligible for the buyer alert emails sent from /alerts/ — buyers who chose to hear about price changes get notified when yours moves.
- Your listing shows the full hanging-weight cost per pound, which is the figure buyers sort and filter the price index by.
None of this ranks your farm against another or guarantees a sale. It puts your number in front of buyers who are actively comparing, in the same terms they’re comparing everyone else.
Two steps
Two steps, in order.
First, claim your listing. Start at /for-farmers/ and tell us who you are and confirm your email. Nothing changes publicly until we review it.
Then, send your price. Once you’re claimed, send the current rate through /update/ with the source link — your website or price sheet — and the exact published wording, word for word. We check every submission against your own source before anything changes on your page.