How much meat off a boned out bull

[PowellSixO]

I dropped off a smaller 5x5 Wednesday at the butcher. Quartered fronts, rears, back straps, and neck meat cane out to 187 lbs. The tender loins, heart, and liver came home with me, and were not included in the weight.

 

[butcherboy]

A lot of you guys understand yield amounts on elk while others don’t. Some are pretty harsh and assume all meat processors are crooks. That’s like saying you had a bad experience with a LEO and all are bad now. Or a bad attorney and all are bad. A bad teacher and all are bad. Etc, etc. After 30 years of processing wild game I would prefer it if everyone did their own. Maybe they would learn to take care of their meat better and get more in the freezer. Not all animals I do are terrible but it sure seems like it. I would rather stick to processing nothing but domestic animals. That’s what keeps the doors open all year and provides a job for my employees.

I feel like you should have gotten more meat back with the weights you posted as well.

 

[butcherboy]

Another thing, I don’t like being called a knuckle dragger by someone who doesn’t even know me or the day to day operations of a commercial meat processing plant. I guess I’m not smart enough to own and operate a successful business.

 

[Rob5589]

A lot of you guys understand yield amounts on elk while others don’t. Some are pretty harsh and assume all meat processors are crooks. That’s like saying you had a bad experience with a LEO and all are bad now. Or a bad attorney and all are bad. A bad teacher and all are bad. Etc, etc. After 30 years of processing wild game I would prefer it if everyone did their own. Maybe they would learn to take care of their meat better and get more in the freezer. Not all animals I do are terrible but it sure seems like it. I would rather stick to processing nothing but domestic animals. That’s what keeps the doors open all year and provides a job for my employees.

I feel like you should have gotten more meat back with the weights you posted as well.

Just for reference; what kind of yield do you expect from a whitetail buck? Doe? Have you processed elk and if so, ave weights packaged? Any other animals you have done? What kind of issues do you see with meat hunters bring to you? Having a real deal butcher give some guidance is very helpful, thanks!

 

[Werty]

First off, 90% of people can't estimate livestock weight or game animals. A guy years ago called me up because he knew I had a scale, his son shot a nice buck. I get there, they tell me this buck must weight 210 gutted. I say that deer gutted doesn't go over 175, actual weight was 172. They couldn't believe it, told the son to get on the scale, scale was right.

 

[gbflyer]

I’d much prefer a quality product over bunch of nasty burger that questionable meat went into just to boost the poundage.

 

[cnelk]

I just finished cutting up my elk.
the hind quarters weig 50lbs each. Leg bone weighed 10lbs. I had 5lbs of scrap.

Do the math

Don’t like what you get back from the processor? Get a fillet knife and get busy.

 

[Deadfall]

Do it yourself

 

[Milhouse58421]

ND corn fed cow. I had several comments from people about how big she looked. I got back 197# of meat from my processor.... granted, some of it was bone, as I had him save me the ribs. I thought that was a good amount of meat.

 

[brettpsu]

Took in 198lb of boned out meat and got back 130 some lb of packaged meat.

 

[TimeOnTarget]

Growing up I always butchered with my grandpa. His passing lead to me using butchers and I've not had good experiences with butchers as well. First one I used shorted me on meat from 2 cows and said i didnt pay a deposit. I had to go back through my bank records to show that i indeed had paid. I found another guy who was great, but like ButcherBoy said, he has quit doing wild game all together.

I finally bought the stuff to butcher myself again and it paid for itself in the 1st year. I usually do 1-2 elk, 7-10 deer, a couple antelope and a pile of ducks and geese. I just pick a day after the first of the year once all seasons are closed and making a butchering party out of it in my shop.

 

[LostArra]

This thread makes me feel blessed with the processors I've used locally. I've done plenty of game myself but the guys I use are honest hard working pros and I've been satisfied with the product every time.

I think everyone should process their own at first to know what goes into packaging an animal. Best college class I had was at U Wyo (1975), Game Processing in the Dept of Ag. Offered in the fall only. We had ALL the equipment and we did every animal the students or faculty could kill. Bear, deer, antelope, elk, moose, fish of all kinds. We made a variety of sausages. The classroom portion was no joke. A lot of sausage chemistry, processing details, animal anatomy and cooking cuts.

 

[Gerbdog]

This thread makes me feel blessed with the processors I've used locally. I've done plenty of game myself but the guys I use are honest hard working pros and I've been satisfied with the product every time.

I think everyone should process their own at first to know what goes into packaging an animal. Best college class I had was at U Wyo (1975), Game Processing in the Dept of Ag. Offered in the fall only. We had ALL the equipment and we did every animal the students or faculty could kill. Bear, deer, antelope, elk, moose, fish of all kinds. We made a variety of sausages. The classroom portion was no joke. A lot of sausage chemistry, processing details, animal anatomy and cooking cuts.

That sounds pretty awesome, all my college offered was basket weaving and oil painting..... darn it. Can paint a pretty good landscape now, but that's mostly thanks to Bob Ross. I also have had luck with the local processors so, ill consider myself blessed also, same with the local taxidermist, he's just fun to show up and talk to though, those old-timers know a thing or two.

 

[butcherboy]

I’ve processed just about every kind of WG there is in North America and exotics from TX and NM. I haven’t processed a grizzly or Musk Ox and I think those are the only two I haven’t done. Yields vary so much from each animal. How big was it? How was it taken care of the field? What kinds of cuts were made? Etc. The biggest elk I ever processed was a bull that weighed 525 lbs dressed and hanging on the rail. I don’t remember what the yield was but my guess would be around 350-375 lbs and that’s if there wasn’t much bloodshot, shattered bones, or gut shot.

I’ve had my share of customers saying they didn’t get all their meat back. I usually agree because I make notes on every work order describing the condition of the carcass and how it was handled just so I can back up my work. Usually complaints come from the worst carcasses and so there will definitely be more waste on them. We always process one at a time and send it to the wrapper before we start the next one. I actually raised my price pretty high this year trying to discourage people about dropping their animal off. I quit taking unskinned animals and stopped taking them after hours and weekends. I know I’ve made some people upset but after 30 years I’m tired. I also quit doing overnight rush orders. I’ve missed too many family things over the years and missing out enjoying the fall and doing my own hunting. After my mom passed away last year I started looking at things differently and had to make some tough decisions. I feel guilty for letting all my WG customers down but I have to take care of my health, sanity and spend more time with my family.

Sorry about the long venting post. I guess I’m still trying to come to terms with my decisions.

 

[HighUintas]

I've done my own two elk I've got this far. I didn't weigh last year's. This year, I got less than expected.

How much evaporation weight would you expect to lose off of bone in elk quarters that have been standing in an upright home refrigerator for 3-4 days? I would think quite a bit since the fan constantly blows and dries it out

 

[trophyhill]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I didn't have much luck searching the archives.

For those of you that bone out elk to pack it out, what kind of weight do you end up with back at the truck, vs weight after processing. I am asking about boned out meat vs bone in quarters. I realize you lose meat due to drying and trimming more with boned out meat.

I shot a bull last week and boned it out up in the hills. There were two of us involved in the butchering so we were able to keep the meat pretty clean and I felt that we were able to pick that carcass pretty clean. He wasn't a huge bodied bull, but what I would call average. As soon as we got back to town I took the meat to the processer. He weighed it in at 220 lbs of meat, not including the bags. Just today I went to pick it up and he gave me 132lbs. This is after adding 10% fat, which means he trimmed the 220lbs down to 120 before adding fat. I did not keep any choice cuts back for myself but had him process 100% of the meat we got off that elk. He told me himself when I picked it up that it was clean when I brought it in.

132 lbs of meat does not sound like much off a whole entire bull,....does it??


Last year I shot a bull and boned it out the same way. I gave the processor 201 lbs and got back 157. For reference. I kept the backstraps out of this one.


What have your numbers been?

 

[Ucsdryder]

I processed a buddy’s bull this weekend. Rifle kill. First shot in the neck, second shot through both shoulders. I kept the sirloins, tenderloins, backstraps, and tri tips. Everything else went in the burger pile. I ended up with 65 pounds of burger. It was a small 3x4 bull.

 

[trophyhill]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I didn't have much luck searching the archives.

For those of you that bone out elk to pack it out, what kind of weight do you end up with back at the truck, vs weight after processing. I am asking about boned out meat vs bone in quarters. I realize you lose meat due to drying and trimming more with boned out meat.

I shot a bull last week and boned it out up in the hills. There were two of us involved in the butchering so we were able to keep the meat pretty clean and I felt that we were able to pick that carcass pretty clean. He wasn't a huge bodied bull, but what I would call average. As soon as we got back to town I took the meat to the processer. He weighed it in at 220 lbs of meat, not including the bags. Just today I went to pick it up and he gave me 132lbs. This is after adding 10% fat, which means he trimmed the 220lbs down to 120 before adding fat. I did not keep any choice cuts back for myself but had him process 100% of the meat we got off that elk. He told me himself when I picked it up that it was clean when I brought it in.

132 lbs of meat does not sound like much off a whole entire bull,....does it??


Last year I shot a bull and boned it out the same way. I gave the processor 201 lbs and got back 157. For reference. I kept the backstraps out of this one.


What have your numbers been?

I’d say you got ripped off.......big time!

 

[HookUp]

Do it yourself! My butcher took my back straps. He lost a customer for life, i had used him for years.

 

[JakeSCH]

I shot a large bodied bull last week, had him hanging overnight and took him to butcher to next day weighing 360 on the hook (no hide, no head, cut at leg joints). We lost probably 5 lbs of neck meat during removal of head.

I got 240 lb back from the butcher, plus I kept the heart and tongue. 16 lb of that was suet added to burger.