another butchering question

[footballjdtractor]

we recently sold a steer to be butchered. the steer weighed 1100 pounds live weight, no shrink. the lady who bought the steer off of us weighed the packaged frozen meat and only got 420 pounds. she was very disappointed. when I called the butcher he said you can only expect 40-42% of the live weight in packaged meat. this seems very low to me. he hangs the carcass in his cooler for up to 3 weeks. could this this affect meat yield? I have always known the man to be honest but something doesn't seem right. does anyone have any experience on this subject?

 

[Bluestem]

A quick rule of thumb that I use. 60% of live wt. equals hanging wt. 60% of hanging wt, equals meat in the freezer. For your steer, about 400 pounds.

 

[redfornow]

the two questions you are always going to be asked by customers that havnt had a beef slaughtered are:
They expect a 1000 animal to yield 5, 6 or 7 hundred pounds for meat....
also they except more steaks????

You have to educate them as they go along to they know what to expect. Or they will get hot.
When they think about it most dont want heart lungs liver head, tongue, hooves, hide or intestines and stomach.
But it does take some explaining. Your yeild could have been higher, but hanging time breed and how he was finshed all play a role.
You are on step one of "how to sale freezer meat"

Good luck

 

[redfornow]

Tn,

He is asking about package meat not hanging weight.

 

[somn]

we recently sold a steer to be butchered. the steer weighed 1100 pounds live weight, no shrink. the lady who bought the steer off of us weighed the packaged frozen meat and only got 420 pounds. she was very disappointed. when I called the butcher he said you can only expect 40-42% of the live weight in packaged meat. this seems very low to me. he hangs the carcass in his cooler for up to 3 weeks. could this this affect meat yield? I have always known the man to be honest but something doesn't seem right. does anyone have any experience on this subject?

Your butcher sounds to be as honest as they come. Boxed beef weight will depend how much is deboned and how much is not it will also depend on how much fat has been trimmed also. But your butcher is stating an honest range for boxed beef weight range %. Selling to people who don't understand how buying halves and quarters works can be challenging. Always try to explain how live weights and hanging weights, and boxed beef weights are different before selling to them. What is even worse is when you get these people who buy a split qtr. Then they tell the butcher they want inch and a half thick steaks then complain when their steaks are only 1 inch instead of what they asked for. Blame the butcher claim he did a poor job and they didn't get what they asked for and they think they shouldn't pay him. They are put on my do not sell list after that. I hate those type of people who know everything but yet can't understand the obvious. When I ask them well how should the butcher have done it differently they start running at the mouth how it should have been done then I ask ok lets say you are the poor sap getting the other split qtr from that half how do you you like your master plan now? They usually shut up after that occasionally there is still a dumb one.

 

[auctionboy]

Sounds like your butcher is an idiot. Our biggest steer we took off last year weighed 1100 and dressed at 62%. He yielded 682 pounds of assorted cuts of meat. The rest dressed at 60% or better. Our 810 pound steer yeilded 495 pounds of assorted cuts of meat and dressed at 61%. Average is 50% give or take a few percent. Sounds to me like either you had a crappy steer, didnt feed him properly, or your butcher is an idiot. If the butcher told you to expect 40-42% hes an idiot and I wouldnt use him anymore. Sounds to me like you been had. I bet he gave some of your meat away. The slaughter house I use lets you watch them tag them as they go in. They give you a print out with your calves tag # when you go and pick up the meat. They have the dressing percentage, meat yield, yield grade, and whether they graded select, choice, or prime. They have all the meat vacuumed sealed and on a cart. They bring it out and the cart has the same tag # as the calf you brought in. Everyone I talked to that bought meat from me was extremely happy. In fact it upped my orders from 6 last year to 13 this year. I only sale wholes or halves. We use only continental bulls so that the carcass hangs heavier therefore yielding more meat. As it pertains to meat yield angus just dont cut it.

For those who think I might be bsing. Check this out. This isnt the sheet they gave me with the yield grade and whether it was choice or prime I couldnt find it but here are 2 of the 6 steers as proof. Granted I know that I blacked out the names on it. Granted I know that the lady at the slaughter house wrote in the the % and dressing weight.

This proves that either your butcher didnt know what they were talking about or you need to get better cattle with larger frames. I would say the butcher screwed up though.

Looks like you don't know what you are talking about. You shouldn't call people idiots and then prove yourself to be one. Your dressed weight is your steer minus hide head and guts also none as hanging weight. You shouldn't call yourself master beef producer if you don't know that. As for your customers they have been taking your word, but as soon as one weights your meat and finds only 2/3 they are going to be so very mad. I think you can get middle forties if you get all cuts bone in.

 

[ROCKSPRINGS]

:lol: :lol:

 

[S&S Farms]

What are you selling your steers for?

Educating the customer is an important part of selling buthcher beef if you want repeat customers that and good tasting meat. Hanging three weeks is a definte plus for the purchaser.

Jeff

 

[dun]

This proves that either your butcher didnt know what they were talking about or you need to get better cattle with larger frames. I would say the butcher screwed up though.

40 to 42% of the live weight for packaged meat doesn;t prove he is an idiot, it proves he knows what he's doing. Try this simple math, 1000 * .6 = 600, 600 * .6 = 360. So if you get 60% of the wife weight when it's hot hangin and 60% of the hot hanging when it's packaged, you end up with 360. A percentage point or 2 better at hanging or cutting and you'll get 40-42%

 

[MrBilly]

Your butcher is honest. I don't recall how many beeves we have sold, but 400 lb of boneless beef per animal is very good. This is boneless, quarter inch fat trim, aged almost 3 wk! Our yield for boneless is 32-34% of live wt.

Yes dry aging will reduce the wt do to mositure loss.

If it is bone in, expect abit more.

Billy

 

[Limomike]

Yep, we recently took in a old cow, and she was 1065 lbs, and we got 367 lbs of hamburger back.

 

[hayray]

we recently sold a steer to be butchered. the steer weighed 1100 pounds live weight, no shrink. the lady who bought the steer off of us weighed the packaged frozen meat and only got 420 pounds. she was very disappointed. when I called the butcher he said you can only expect 40-42% of the live weight in packaged meat. this seems very low to me. he hangs the carcass in his cooler for up to 3 weeks. could this this affect meat yield? I have always known the man to be honest but something doesn't seem right. does anyone have any experience on this subject?

I have a freezer beef business so I have a lot of experience with this. That amount of packaged beef is right on target for a good yield.

 

[MikeC]

Sounds like your butcher is an idiot.

Pot calling the kettle black. :roll:

 

[mnmtranching]

I think being a butcher would be one hard job.

Only a few people understand that about 40% of live weight is all you put in the deep freeze.

 

[MikeC]

I think being a butcher would be one hard job.

Only a few people understand that about 40% of live weight is all you put in the deep freeze.

That, plus the fact that many accuse the butcher of swapping animals on them. :shock:

 

[C HOLLAND]

I think being a butcher would be one hard job.

Only a few people understand that about 40% of live weight is all you put in the deep freeze.

That, plus the fact that many accuse the butcher of swapping animals on them. :shock:

And the person who purchased half of the beef from you wants to know why the steaks have so much fat on them. They will say things like: Walmart meat is better trimmed and it sure looks better and crap like that. My wife called me last year when she picked up our first steer , and she was ranting about how much fat was on the steaks and we wasted our money on the calf, when I got home I opened a few rib eye packs and some T-bone steaks and trimmed the excess fat and ran the scraper across the steaks and she changed her tune then.

People that have never had a beef butchered expect more than they get and don't understand that they don't get the beef trimmed like in a chain store, but you aren't paying $8.99 per lb either.

 

[Weaver]

One of our landlords used to own a butcher shop and he once had a lady come in that wanted a hog butchered. She must have been from the city because she came back the day after she picked up the meat to accuse the butcher of cheating. She said she only received two sides of ribs and wondered where the other side was. The butcher told her it was a mutant hog and it only had two sides.
That's how clueless some of our consumers are.

 

[dun]

One of our landlords used to own a butcher shop and he once had a lady come in that wanted a hog butchered. She must have been from the city because she came back the day after she picked up the meat to accuse the butcher of cheating. She said she only received two sides of ribs and wondered where the other side was. The butcher told her it was a mutant hog and it only had two sides.
That's how clueless some of our consumers are.

Too many people complain about the butcher stealing their meat when in fact they have no idea how much they should recv. We had a customer come back to the shop once and complain and when it was explained the cutting loss and hanging loss he still thought we were crooks. Claimed we were just trying to cover up for the meat we had stolen. Only one of the reasons I'm glad we sold our part of the shop and went back to just raising them instead of butchering them too.

 

[footballjdtractor]

sounds like my butcher is right on. I have sent lots of cattle to be cut up but I guess I've never weighed the finished amount or had a customer do so. The locker beef business is becoming a real pain I might start turning people away and just take some for family and longtime customers that pay well. I'm getting tired of having chase down people who don't pay or are real slow payers or call several times complaining, too fat, too lean, too big, to small, too expensive.

 

[Limomike]

thats a shame to have to get out of a business just because of peoples attitudes. I have a friend who has been butchering for over 30 years, and he tells me the same thing about what people expect. They just do not understand about the how much is really left after he does his job.