butchering show steers

[Teacher]

On average how much meat should you bring home out of a 1400 lb show steer?  Does 1000lb of waste sound to much or is that normal?

Thanks

 

[harbmis]

No 1000 lbs waste is not normal. You should get in the 55-60 range for dressing %

 

[shortyjock89]

Well, ours usually dress out at about 65%-68%, which is a little bit higher than average, but I'd sure think you'd get more than 400 lbs of meat.  

 

[HAFarm]

From my experience you should get around 40% maybe a little more maybe a little less of take home wrapped/sealed meat in the freezer.  That's not taking things like soup bones or ox tail or liver etc.. but that really won't add up to much.

There was someone on here recently that had a lot more experience than I and I found his data to be very in tersesting and I learned a lot.  I think he said he had gotten up to 50% or a little better take home meat from on the hoof weight.  I haven't been able to get that high a number yet. Maybe he/she will re-post.

 

[pjkjr4]

We just had a show steer butchered on the 17th of April. We brought him home from the OYE, so we fed him for an extra 3 weeks. His live weight on the trailer the night before was 1340# at the Co-op. Last week, I brought home 884# of beef home. That's 66%. I usually figur 65%, so we're pretty close. I have never had one dress out below 60%. Unless you can't get in to the slaughter house in a timely manner (meaning over conditioned), I would wonder a little bit about who is doing my butchering. These cattle (all of them) are in probably the upper 10% as far as quality, and are fed the absolute best rations that money can buy, no matter what brand is on the sack, so I would think that 50-60% dressing would be completely unnacceptable. Just my $.02.

 

[farwest]

Not possible to bring home 66 per cent. You must have a good friend working at the meat locker. Or never boned any burger and they must have hosed it with water before they wrapped it.

 

[Teacher]

The butchers response was shrinkage, bone and they had to trim a lot of fat.  This steer was not that big boned, fat cover he was right on the money not over done by no means.  We brought him home from OYE and feed him for one week before taking him to the butcher.  It just sounds like a lot of money going into the trash.  If that is the case how is anyone making money feeding out steers to butcher?  I know that there is some waste but that just seemed a little excessive.     

 

[Jeferin]

You got screwed.

You should have brought home at least 550lbs.
That is a difference of 150lbs. x $3 - 4.00 a pound, not a bad day of work for the butcher.

I used to help out at the local meat locker.
I would say that the average is 40 - 45% in the freezer and 60 - 65% hanging.

I would not let this go. Call them and ask them what the hanging weight was.

Do you know anybody else that have their animal's processed at the same plant? See if they have had the same experience.

 

[jbzdad]

whoa!!!! you guys are saying the same thing different ways, 65% on rail then 40-45% take home after trimming and boning.... we price ours at about 2.00 on the rail... this pays the .40 per pound fee and the other charges , depending on trim etc I think about 2/3 of that goes home.. so price take home is about 3.00 per pound... but 40% of 1300 should be about 520 takehome

 

[Steered]

Did you actually weigh the cut and wrapped meat that you brought home or is 400 pounds just an estimate? 

 

[Teacher]

They weighed the meat.  We are trying to get the hanging weight, they said they can't find the paper work!

 

[jbzdad]

I think  this is getting more intriguing, You might offer to run a copy of this thread in the local paper... where is the packing plant located?

 

[vc]

Around here there used to be a few places you did not want to take your beef, you take in a fat steer and take home a cull cow. They did not make it for to long.

Here is some Data I found

Beef Carcass Breakdown
With an average market (live or on hoof) weight of 1,150 lbs and the average yield of 62.2%, the typical steer will produce a 715 lb. (dressed weight) carcass.

The dressed beef (or carcass) will yield approximately 569 lbs. of red meat and trim (take home meat - which includes the average weight of 27 lbs of variety meat: liver, heart, tongue, tripe, sweetbreads and brains) and 146 lbs of fat, bone and loss. This is roughly a yield of 80% from the dressed or hanging weight - this is for a VERY LEAN Beef.

A High Quality, USDA Choice Beef will yield approximately 70% of the Hanging or Dressed Weight. The yield on the take home meat weight from the live weight of the (VERY LEAN) steer is approximately 50%.

To learn more about consumer (retail) beef cut names click:  Retail Beef Cuts

Beef Cut Yield Per Steer Based on 569lbs take home meat
 
Chuck - 209.5 lbs total, which is 29% of the dressed/hanging/carcass weight

Blade Roasts and Steaks
33.9 lbs.
Ground Beef and Stew Meat
83.3 lbs.
Arm Pot Roasts and Steaks
35.5 lbs.
Cross Rib Pot Roast
25.4 lbs.
Fat and Bones  Fat and Bones 31.4 lbs.

Round - 155.8 lbs. total, which is 22% of the dressed/hanging/carcass weight

Top Round 34.6 lbs.
Bottom Round 31.2 lbs.
Tip 16.8 lbs.
Rump 7.8 lbs.
Ground Beef 33.4 lbs.
Fat and Bones 32 lbs.

Thin Cuts - 134.6 lbs. total, which is 19% of the dressed/hanging/carcass weight
Flank Steak 3.6 lbs.
Pastrami Squares 2.9 lbs.
Outside Skirt 2.2 lbs.
Inside skirt 2.5 lbs.
Boneless Brisket 16 lbs.
Ground Beef and Stew Meat 87.3 lbs
Fat and Bone 20.1 lbs.


Short Loin - 115.7 lbs. total, which is 16% of the dressed/hanging/carcass weightTenderloin Steak 6.8lbs
Porterhouse Steak 19.6 lbs.
T-bone Steak 9.8 lbs.
Strip Steak 15 lbs.
Sirloin Steak 15.3 lbs.
Ground Beef and Stew Meat 22.7 lbs.
Fat and Bone 26.5 lbs.



Rib - 66.6 lbs. total, which is 9% of the dressed/hanging/carcass weightRib Roast 23.9 lbs.
Rib Steak 9.2 lbs.
Short Ribs 8.6 lbs.
Ground Beef and Stew Meat 16.5 lbs.
Fat and Bone
8.4 lbs.



Miscellaneous - 32.7 lbs. total, which is 5% of the dressed/hanging/carcass weight
Kidney and Hanging Tender 4.9 lbs.
Fat, Suet and Cutting Loss 27.8 lbs.

 

[Teacher]

Thanks for everyone input.  I don't wish to put down the company that processed the steer in the past they have done a good job with other peoples.  I was just checking if what I got was right.  At the moment A lawyer (family friend) is getting involved to see if he could get more answers.  Thanks again for all your help.

 

[jbzdad]

let us know how this turns out.....

 

[vc]

Something else to concider is they may have misplaced a couple of boxes last year my boss bought 4 steers our fair, I was helping him pick them up. Each animal had a different Identifying number on the boxes. We unloaded the boxes from my sons steer and it seemed like their should have been more meat. His calf was 1331 at the fair and we had to wait over a month for the calves to get processed. calf had to be pushing 1400 by the end. We asked if there were no boxes, guy at the shop said no, 2 months later the butcher calls to say they found 2.5 boxes that they missed. Just made a mistake.

There are only a handfull of custom guys in the area and with 3 fairs in 2 months they get overloaded and things happen.

 

[aggiegal]

We have had 3 done this year and at least one done every year for the last 4 years...have never had less than 60%.  Just picked up a 1/2 of one yesterday that weighed 1410 pounds and it was 438 pounds of meat!  This was for only HALF the calf!
The other calf we took this year weighed 1498 pounds live weight and we brought home exactly 64% of that weight.
You definitely need to find another processing plant.

 

[farwest]

You brought home 64 per cent ? Boned , wrapped , hung for 2 weeks ? Wow. You got some unbelievable cattle.

 

[Jill]

I think your hanging weight was 64%, I highly doubt your take home meat was 64%??

 

[farwest]

I figured this out. Aggie gal and okie must use the same processor and aggie gal is getting some of okies meat