Carcass to Case: Where the Pounds Go

You can sell a steer on the rail for years and never really know where the pounds go after the hot weight. Here is the walk from the live weight to the meat case, with the numbers I could back up from published sources. Where I could not confirm something, I left it out.

Yields shift with the animal and the cutter, so ask your processor for real numbers before you plan around any of this. This site is not tied to the brand or the Angus Association. For processors and haulers in your area, check agriculture.directory.

Live to hot carcass

The Angus Association's bulletin on carcass yields puts average dressing at 63 percent. A 1,000-pound steer makes a carcass around 630 pounds, give or take with fill, fat, and muscling (Angus Beef Bulletin). Heavier-muscled cattle dress higher and fat cattle with big guts and heavy hides dress lower. The grid pays on the hot weight, so that is your number.

The big four

The carcass gets split into sides and broken into primals. The big four are chuck, rib, loin and round, and together they run over 75 percent of carcass weight, according to the same bulletin. The leftovers are brisket, plate, flank and shank.

• Chuck. Shoulder. Roasts, ground beef, pot roast. Big and cheap per pound.
• Rib. Ribeyes and prime rib. Also the cut the grader opens up to score marbling and measure area.
• Loin. Strip, tenderloin, sirloin. Highest dollars per pound.
• Round. Back leg. Lean. Roasts and thin-sliced.
• Brisket and plate. Smoker meat and short ribs. If you smoke, the guide on brisket basics is worth a read.

From there the primals are cut into subprimals, the boxed pieces that go to grocers and restaurants. A ribeye roll, a strip loin, a tenderloin, a top round, a knuckle. Then they become steaks and roasts.

What reaches the case

This is the part that surprises people. The bulletin explains that yield grade estimates the percent of boneless, closely trimmed retail cuts from the four primals, and that leaner, heavier-muscled carcasses give more. It also says a buyer may get 500 pounds or less of meat from an animal over 1,100 pounds. Bones, fat trim and shrink take a lot of weight. If you sell a freezer beef, tell the customer that up front. It will save you phone calls. Our guide to filling your own freezer covers the process.

Where the dollars land

A review of one year's carcass primal premiums, written up in Oklahoma Farm Report, said the brand premium over Choice added $147.05 per head on an 880-pound hot carcass. It said that going from Select to Choice makes the biggest difference in the rib and loin, and that going from Choice to the brand adds about $84 per carcass in the middle meats. The chuck and round brand premium combined was $48.99 per head, up from $20.66 five years earlier.

That is one year's numbers. Prices move, so do not plan on those specific dollars. The pattern is the useful part: the middle meats lead, and chuck and round are an increasing slice of the premium.

Shrink, trim and the hang

Three things take weight off a carcass between the kill floor and the case, and every cattleman should be able to name them. First is cooler shrink: a carcass loses moisture as it chills and hangs, which is part of why hot weight and cold weight are not the same. Second is aging, which tenderizes the beef but also dries the outside, and the dried surface gets trimmed away. Third is trim, the fat and silverskin a cutter takes off to meet the customer's spec. A thick fat cover looks like value on the rail and turns into trim on the block.

That is why a yield grade matters, and why the leaner, thicker-muscled carcass puts more pounds in the box. It is also why a steer fed too long to chase weight can end up with more hot pounds and less to sell. The bulletin on carcass yields is a good read if you want the table on expected retail pounds by yield grade and carcass weight. Your own processor will have numbers specific to their cutting style.

A note on grinding

A large share of every carcass ends up as ground beef or lean trim, and that is where the cheaper cuts, the trim and a good bit of the chuck and round go. Do not look down on it. It moves the weight that the steaks cannot, and a good grind program keeps the whole animal paid for. If you feed ribs and chuck to your own crew or customers, our recipe piece on beef ribs and chuck roast shows the cuts earning their keep.

What you do with that

1. Know your hot weight and dressing. Both are on the closeout sheet. If dressing is low, find out why.
2. Do not ignore the ends. Premiums in chuck and round mean carcasses that qualify bring value across the whole animal, not just the steaks.
3. Watch heavy weights. More pounds is good until you hit the limits. The next article in this series on the ribeye trade-off covers that.
4. If you sell by the cut, price off take-home weight, not hanging weight, and spell out what is included.

Farm.fm has a page on marketing your Angus beef that covers selling cuts and direct sales.

Bottom line

About 63 percent of the live weight is carcass, about three-quarters of that is four primals, and a lot less than that reaches the case once the bone and trim are gone. Premiums for quality start in the rib and loin but now reach the chuck and round too. Get your processor's real numbers and build your plan on those. For the current rules on grades, see the USDA beef page.