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Field notes5 min

How we ship a whole cow across three states

Vacuum-sealed, hand-packed in insulated crates with dry ice. Here's the logistics behind a two-day door delivery.

EV

Ellett Valley

2025-11-01

How we ship a whole cow across three states

Photo · Ellett Valley archives

A quarter cow is 90 pounds of frozen beef. Getting it from our processor in Elliston to your kitchen in Charlotte without a single thaw is more engineering than farming.

"Every cut is vacuum-sealed at the processor, blast-frozen for 24 hours, and inventoried by lot number so we can trace any package back to a single animal."

Orders ship Monday and Tuesday only. Boxes are packed with dry ice and reflective liners rated for 60 hours. UPS Next Day Air within Virginia; two-day air anywhere east of the Mississippi.

You'll get a photo of your packed box before it leaves the barn. If anything arrives above 20°F, we replace it - no questions.

- Ellett Valley, from the porch, Blacksburg VA