Carcass Dressing Percentage and Freezer Yield
The dressing percentage and take-home meat yield of a slaughter animal, for pricing freezer beef, pork, or lamb. Dressing % = hot carcass weight / live weight: a 1,200 lb steer with a 744 lb carcass dresses at 62.0% (beef ~60-64%). Pork runs higher (skin and feet stay on) -- a 260 lb hog at 190 lb carcass = 73.1% (~72-75%); lamb ~50%. The boneless freezer meat is far less than the carcass (bone, trim fat, cutting loss): a beef cutting yield ~65-70% of the carcass, so a 744 lb carcass gives ~744 x 0.67 = 498 lb cut-and-wrapped. Dressing rises with fatter, more muscular animals and falls with gut fill and heavy hide. A pricing/planning aid; the processor's certified scale, the cut sheet, aging shrink, and the packer/locker govern the freezer yield.
Formula and source
dressing_pct = 100 x hot_carcass_weight_lb / live_weight_lb; boneless_yield_lb = hot_carcass_weight_lb x cutting_yield_pct / 100.
Carcass dressing percentage and cutting yield (standard meat-science figures: beef ~60-64%, pork ~72-75%, lamb ~50%; beef cutting yield ~65-70% of the carcass), by name; the processor's certified scale and the cut sheet govern the actual freezer yield.
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