We have a small herd of beef cows that are scheduled to go to the slaughter house this fall. The butcher shop is inspected (state) but not the meat (usda) so we cannot sell the individual cuts, only the hanging carcass. We had offered beef halfs and are getting orders in now. Some of the customers don't want a half . Cost and lack of freezer space are the reasons. So we are trying to pair up folks who want a 1/4. The problem there is we sell by the hanging weight which is a half and if different people split a half the front 1/4 and back 1/4 will be different in weight and variety of cuts. So you can't just cut the price in half for each and give them different 1/4's. So we are going to see if people would like to divide the half by weight and cuts - divide the ground beef evenly, divide the steaks and roasts etc as evenly as possible. Now we have a couple of people wanting to split the quarters. How do ya'll deal with this?
Stanley

We do just as you suggested. Folks who buy a quarter, split a side, and the price. We don't sell the "front" half or the "back" half.

We sell by the individual cut and by the half, whole, or quarter. We charge a set price per pound (hanging weight) and the customer pays the slaughter charge. When sold this way, the half is cut and the cuts are divided equally between the two quarters. It works well, but we stress to the customer that both quarters from that particular half must be the same to make equitable division of the meat possible. Some slaughter houses will do "front quarter/back quarter" processing, but the cuts of meat are not equally divided between the two quarters and someone will wind up with more of the lower quality cuts, so we do not do it that way.