how much meat should I expect to get from the butcher?

[nuadixion]

We dropped off two moose dressed at the butcher totalling close to 1000b. After it was done we received around 600b . Is that normal to loose close to 40%?
Seems a bit much. I asked for bones as well. ..which i saw were there....How do they justify it?

[dakoda62]

You can expect up to 50% waste.

[willyqbc]

if all the bones....including spine, were in your boxes and included in your 600 lbs, 40% seems a bit high to me. Butchering our own for years we have generally found when doing boneless, with a hard trim we end up with approx 50% of hanging weight. Larger animals like moose a little better, smaller animals a little worse.

just my experience
Chris

[Jelvis]

When you get your meat back from a butcher no matter, it always looks like it's not enuff?
--
Jel -- when you cut one up yourself -- you see how much bone, sinew, blue skin and tendons and blood and water and more --- >

[Dannybuoy]

You can expect up to 50% waste.WHAT?? How many bullet holes and are you using hollow points ?��
The moose we took to a butcher we got back 100% if you count the bones/waste which if I recall was 20% max . The 50 -55 % is meat from LIVE weight .

[Blainer]

WHAT?? How many bullet holes and are you using hollow points ?��
The moose we took to a butcher we got back 100% if you count the bones/waste which if I recall was 20% max . The 50 -55 % is meat from LIVE weight .100%? Your butcher spent no time trimming fat?
Always a big bag of dog food when I’m done trimming
Sausage, pepperoni, etc can increase weight as pork and fat added.

[Bustercluck]

I'm told roughly half of the weight of a moose is the guts, hide and head. Roughly half of what's leftover is what you take home. So 1/4 of the weight of the entire animal.

[Sharpish]

I always figure 33% wrapped compared to on the hoof. A thousand pound moose will be 500 lbs hanging, about 150 lbs of that will be bones. So you end up with 350 wrapped.

[butcher]

WHAT?? How many bullet holes and are you using hollow points ?��
The moose we took to a butcher we got back 100% if you count the bones/waste which if I recall was 20% max . The 50 -55 % is meat from LIVE weight .

WRONG! 70% on domestic including bones is standard on custom cutting. 60% on wild game is pretty normal. Especially moose.

[nuadixion]

if all the bones....including spine, were in your boxes and included in your 600 lbs, 40% seems a bit high to me. Butchering our own for years we have generally found when doing boneless, with a hard trim we end up with approx 50% of hanging weight. Larger animals like moose a little better, smaller animals a little worse.

just my experience
Chris

Prior to this, I have always done meat processing by myself and ended up with a bucket full of offcuts....I use it all ...bones for soups,spine and neck for broths etc....the wast would not total to 10%. I told the butcher I want it all including bones...dont know if the spine and neck is in it.....but even if they were not there, would they account for 300lb?
Its probably my first and last experience with the butcher .....I was forced to do it due to fairly warm weather and bears.....
Not very happy...:( two beautiful animals and so much waste....

[srthomas75]

I always figure 33% wrapped compared to on the hoof. A thousand pound moose will be 500 lbs hanging, about 150 lbs of that will be bones. So you end up with 350 wrapped.


this is the formula / percentage that I have always assumed. 1000 lbs live weight, 60% hanging weight equals 600 lb carcass then 60% of that is cut wrapped equals 360 lb in the freezer. Similar result to Sharpish. What are other guys' views on this? To the OP it seems like you didn't receive everything back to you if you got all the bones.

[MRP]

Where you shoot can make a difference of ounces or xxx pounds. Even a broad side heart lung shot that nicks the back of the front leg can waste a bucket of meat. Faster the impact more waste.

[willyqbc]

WRONG! 70% on domestic including bones is standard on custom cutting. 60% on wild game is pretty normal. Especially moose.

I'm unclear butcher....did you mean 60% of live weight is normal, or 60% of hanging weight

60% of live weight give or take, for a bone in butcher job seems about right to me, but i believe the OP is saying the quarters hanging at the butcher shop totalled 1000lbs and his yield including bones was only 60%. that number doesn't seem right to me. just can't see fat, tendons, silver skin etc accounting for 40%.....wound damage can obviously have a big impact as well.

However, I've been wrong before! :)I'm assuming by your nickname, you do this for a living, so would be interested to hear your thoughts in a little more detail!

Chris

[butcher]

60% of hanging weight. Hydrostatic shock ruins a lot of meat on those big boys. I have cut and wrapped several hundred of them. Even if you kept every scrap of junk, trim and bone you won’t get 100%. They’re going to dehydrate when they’re hanging. So you’re weight when it goes in will be greater than when it’s cut up.

And yeah I’ve heard all the stories about how certain Caliber rifles let you eat everything right up to the bullet hole.

[Dannybuoy]

100%? Your butcher spent no time trimming fat?
Always a big bag of dog food when I’m done trimming
Sausage, pepperoni, etc can increase weight as pork and fat added.
The 100% was including trim .... each moose was 400+ lbs and we weighed all the boxes including the scrap/bones/ fat and that 's what we got back .

[butcher]

The 100% was including trim .... each moose was 400+ lbs and we weighed all the boxes including the scrap/bones/ fat and that 's what we got back .


Your butcher must have gone to Hogwarts.

[todbartell]

1000lb live weight, probably 600lb hanging (4 quarters with neck/ribs), probably yield 350lbs of meat +/- and this will include some dog food scraps

[Dannybuoy]

Hmmm my father was a bc meat inspector and my father -inlaw was a butcher . Beef go 55-60% of live weight depending on breed and game Always is higher . Although given some of the game I have seen hanging in coolers .... I could see it going much lower .

[Dannybuoy]

Your butcher must have gone to Hogwarts. or he treated the meat just as I do .... that the only game I ever took to a butcher and that was only because it was a group hunt and we had 2 .

[butcher]

Hmmm my father was a bc meat inspector and my father -inlaw was a butcher . Beef go 55-60% of live weight depending on breed and game Always is higher . Although given some of the game I have seen hanging in coolers .... I could see it going much lower .

55-60 % of live is your carcass weight. 70% of that will be cut and wrapped weight which includes some marrow bones but no waste. You are right about some of the stuff that comes in from hunters. It would put you off eating game again.

[ryanonthevedder]

After I took a moose to the cutter I said never again. I learned to cut my own and have done 5 deer so far. We have a little cooler for hanging and we cut after a few days all the way to 21 days. TOTALLY worth the effort to do it yourself!

[Dannybuoy]

55-60 % of live is your carcass weight. 70% of that will be cut and wrapped weight which includes some marrow bones but no waste. You are right about some of the stuff that comes in from hunters. It would put you off eating game again. That sounds right , I think I was describing it wrong .

[eatram]

Not to derail the topic, but I have seen some strange things from "some" butchers. I shot a deer in the head one time, and when I received my cut and wrapped meat, a perfectly intact bullet was found in the backstraps. I went away from having my meat made into sausages from the butcher from another incident. I shot a sitka blacktail (maybe 40 lbs of meat on it) and had sausages made. I received over 100lbs of sausage and some tasted really really rutty. Pretty sure that someone got shortchanged. Lol. I do have a really good butcher now though.

[wideopenthrottle]

Not to derail the topic, but I have seen some strange things from "some" butchers. I shot a deer in the head one time, and when I received my cut and wrapped meat, a perfectly intact bullet was found in the backstraps. I went away from having my meat made into sausages from the butcher from another incident. I shot a sitka blacktail (maybe 40 lbs of meat on it) and had sausages made. I received over 100lbs of sausage and some tasted really really rutty. Pretty sure that someone got shortchanged. Lol. I do have a really good butcher now though.

pretty much same for me..about 10years ago, i dropped off a wt doe at the butcher and asked for x lbs mild pepperoni...about 1/3 of pepperonis were a rutted buck and spicy....i know it is hard to separate stuff in a crowded smoker but i don't think they really even try at some butchers...

the last 2 deer i have done at home..i have even been using my tiny little grinder for all the burger (i did spend extra time to fillet out the tendons in the lower leg meat and i did clean out the cutter area 3 times during the grinding but all the ground took no more than a couple of hours including cleanup) ...previous to that we have done 6+ at a time with a good sized crew, stainless bandsaw and industrial sized grinder...generally some music, kids helping, laughing and wine being drank....adds to the whole hunting experience IMHO

[Quince2]

How you drop it off also effects finished weight. I got lucky with a spike moose last year and was able to fully clean it before drop off. Cutter was very happy to work with exceptionally clean meat and got a high % back. Cutter showed me an elk that had leaves,sticks and dirt all over it and had customers wonder why meat return was low. Cutters wont run dirt and crap through their grinder and i dont blame them.

[Arctic Lake]

Wow some real horror stories here ! For your own needs you need a good grinder . Maybe a stuffer, if not just make sausage patties with sausage recipes that way you don't need to buy casings .
Just find a butcher that could come to your house bone out your game tie some roasts , cut some boneless steaks, make some stew meat ,set aside trimmings for mince ,no need for bone in steaks, so you don't need a band saw .
Arctic Lake

[Brez]

Prior to this, I have always done meat processing by myself and ended up with a bucket full of offcuts....I use it all ...bones for soups,spine and neck for broths etc....the wast would not total to 10%. I told the butcher I want it all including bones...dont know if the spine and neck is in it.....but even if they were not there, would they account for 300lb?
Its probably my first and last experience with the butcher .....I was forced to do it due to fairly warm weather and bears.....
Not very happy...:( two beautiful animals and so much waste....
Yu have to remember that no one will trim and take the time that you would so more stuff in the dog-food/garbage pile. Time is money to a professional

[tyreguy]

They are called "meat cutters" - not "meat cleaners" - their cleaning is done with a knife. Not saying your meat was dirty but you'd be amazed at what gets delivered to the butcher shop, guys should be embarrassed.
Another thing to consider as a rule of thumb is the meat ages 4 times as fast outside a controlled cooler - so every day on your meat pole is the equivalent to 4 days in the cooler. After you've removed the hide and the meat sets up with that protective "skin" on the meat, the animal has to essentually be reskinned of a that layer of meat which is loss not recovered.
Some butchers weigh when they arrive which would be the heaviest weight, others weigh when they cut.

What i would do is ask him - was there something wrong with the animal that you could do differently(?) was there shot damage(?), cause of waste(?). Then use that info for future reference as you may not like his answers or you may learn something from this experience which will all help in the future.

Yu have to remember that no one will trim and take the time that you would so more stuff in the dog-food/garbage pile. Time is money to a professional

[mikek]

On Beef you end up with 36% meat from live weight , you end up with 60% live weight to rail weight and 60% rail weight to proceesed weight, I average 120# of ground meat from a bull elk. Plus the Back strap and tendloins in roasts

[jbruce]

it is well worth the effort,used to come back to the island with our moose the temp would go up and it was a mad panic to get er done before it turned,over the years I'ved learned not to panic just toss the quarters into the freezer and cut them at your own leisure.

[rocksteady]

Took an 80 lbwt buck to the butcher. Just got it back. Boneless 53 lbs on my beam scale. Including wrappring paper tape and the duffel bag i weighed it in.. so probably 50 lbs backs

So 60% of hanging weight..

There was no bloodshot/gutshot as i poked him just under the chin. Meat was picked clean of hair, washed down and excess fat removed prior to delivery

[tomahawk]

the % you get back depends on the CONDITION OF THE DRESSED MEAT YOU BRING IN. If you didnt spend hours trimming, removing blood shot and damaged meat and ribs etc you'll have them do it for you and they wont take the care you would. Too many guys bring poorly dressed meat into the butcher and hence theres not as many that cut wild meat anymore.

[Elkhound]

the % you get back depends on the CONDITION OF THE DRESSED MEAT YOU BRING IN. If you didnt spend hours trimming, removing blood shot and damaged meat and ribs etc you'll have them do it for you and they wont take the care you would. Too many guys bring poorly dressed meat into the butcher and hence theres not as many that cut wild meat anymore.

Exactly. And this is why we do it ourselves. The stuff I wouldnt even give my dog someone else will run through the grinder. No thanks

[Moosehunter64]

Cut your own next time an you will find out just how much you loose. Sounds like you got what you should have. I cut my own and I am pretty picky so 50% lose is about right.

[emerson]

this is the formula / percentage that I have always assumed. 1000 lbs live weight, 60% hanging weight equals 600 lb carcass then 60% of that is cut wrapped equals 360 lb in the freezer. Similar result to Sharpish. What are other guys' views on this? To the OP it seems like you didn't receive everything back to you if you got all the bones.
When I do it myself and trim aggressively I end up with the same as this.

[Night Hawk 3]

Seems most are coming in with numbers that are similar to what I've found over the years.

From live weight to fully butchered (no bones) is about 35% yield give or take depending on fat and wound damage.

From my 900-ish lb formerly live moose with virtually no wound damage a couple years ago I got about 300 lbs of wrapped meat.

~John

[rocksteady]

Who weighs their critters live weight??

Guts in, hide and heads on???

Maybe for cattle but not wild meat

[grousetrap]

Your butcher must have gone to Hogwarts.

This is gold

[Hunterguy]

What is the going rate per day to hang a moose and also a deer per day on average?

[rocksteady]

20$ per day.. if they cut for you they waive it

[okas]

I would not like to be a meat cutter , as the ones bringing in the bad shot dirty meat HAVE THE BIGGEST mouths . And even if you turn them away they BLA BLA BLA and there is so much stupid out there . And stupid get along with stupid. You still end up the bad guy . THESE guys are the same ones with the no respect for anyone and the land when there out hunting .

[butcher]

You got that right. That’s the kind of thing that got me to sell my shop and equipment and move to a different career.

A friend of mine had a sign in his shop that said “bring shit in, take shit home”.