# Hanging Weight



## OneFineAcre (Dec 17, 2016)

If you had an 1100  lb Angus steer the hanging weight would be 62% from what I understand so about 682 lbs
When it is deboned and packaged about how much meat would that translate to?
I'm thinking 500 lbs maybe ?


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## Latestarter (Dec 17, 2016)

I think de-boned you're looking at about 50% of hanging weight. @farmerjan would know as would @greybeard I expect.


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 17, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> I think de-boned you're looking at about 50% of hanging weight. @farmerjan would know as would @greybeard I expect.



I don't think that's right
To be sure you'd get more than 340 lbs of meat
Of course the bone would still be in TBones and Rib steaks

ETA
Of course I could be wrong
I don't know that's why I asked


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## farmerjan (Dec 17, 2016)

The rule of thumb, by our butcher,  is;   live weight =50% hanging weight=50% edible packaged meat.  So that is approx 1/4 of the live weight. That is the low side as many will hang at 60%.  62% is what the USDA charts say.  Do you believe what the gov't tells you????.  The angus assoc also has the 62% rule, but it doesn't always happen.
I had a jersey steer that weighed 1100+ lbs.  Hung at 790 lbs. (72%) and got about 350 lbs edible meat.  They are more lean and I was very pleased with what it figured out as.  Always figure 50% of the hanging weight as the "take home" meat.  There is deboning and alot of trim of fat and non-usable sinews etc.  So regardless of the live weight, figure 50% of the hanging weight.  It also will depend on what the animal has been eating, as to the ratio of fat on the carcass, and the frame of the animal as to the finish on the carcass also.
If you are taking it to be done and this is the first time couple of things; LOOK at a chart of where the different cuts come from and ASK questions;   the thicker the steaks the fewer you will get, so many people tend to forget that;  T-bones can only be done on animals less than 27 months due to the BSE (mad cow)  ruling with the backbone/spinal cord contamination stuff;  don't bother with t-bones as the bone takes up alot of room, get filet and N.Y.  strips  instead. Sirloins are good steaks especially if the animal is marbled .  If you like much stew meat and want to get as much as you can, tell them that you do stir fry and you want them to throw the smaller pieces from trimming into the stew meat instead of the ground beef.  If the animal is less than the 27 months, get the backbone cut up to use as  barbeque "ribs". There is alot of odd pieces of meat on them and they cook into great BBQ pieces.  Get all the bones you can if you have dogs.  Some will be soup bones and will have some meat on them for making beef broth/soup.  If you make soap, or have venison, get all the fat back.  It will taste better in the venison for hamburger and it can be rendered into "shortening", or used to feed the birds (suet), or used for soap making (tallow).
Get all the odd stuff back, "ox-tail",  tongue, liver, etc. and find recipes to at least try it once.  It will still be good for the dogs/cats if you don't like it.
If you are not big on roasts only get a few and do things like cube steaks. 
Approx 1/4 to 1/3 of the meat will be in hamburger.  There are alot of scraps and they will put it into burger.  Get it lean and don't overcook them.
You will not believe the flavor of real meat, especially if it is not overfed feedlot type beef.


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## farmerjan (Dec 17, 2016)

We figure that a 1000 lb animal will put approx 250-300 lbs meat in the freezer.  The bones are big and alot heavier than you think.


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 17, 2016)

So here is the deal
My wife's dad is 88 years old and he is having some issues as would be expected
He's been doing cows for 60 years
At one point this summer he had 90
Cows and calves
He's down to 45 or so now and after the first of the year we are going to sell all but 10 heifers and a few of the older cows
Immediate situation
We don't do grass fed beef
Her dad feed lots his steers for 90 days prior to slaughter
He can't do it too much work and has to haul water
He's going to bring 2 of them here next week
They are 18 months old and weigh around 800-900 lbs
We feed them out
They get one and we get one
They pay their slaughter butcher and package and we pay ours 
Slaughter butcher and vacuum package is $325 
We were thinking it would cost $675 to feed them out 
I talked to my hay/feed guy today and he says it's a winner
You are telling me less meat than anyone else is


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## Goat Whisperer (Dec 17, 2016)

Sounds like a good deal. 

Would they be in with the goats?


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 17, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> Sounds like a good deal.
> 
> Would they be in with the goats?



No we are going to put them on the front field
I know what you are thinking 
Not a problem


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## Goat Whisperer (Dec 17, 2016)

You know me well 

I was just wondering how the LGDs would do. Goats would probably be scared. 

Send me pics when you have steers walking around your front yard 

You putting up electric fence? Hard fence? 

You can put that on your journal if you want. Not trying to hijack this thread


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 17, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> You know me well
> 
> I was just wondering how the LGDs would do. Goats would probably be scared.
> 
> ...


You've been here
It's the front field on the right when you come in our driveway
It's about an acre or so and its fenced in
I've got a strand of Hotwire about 18 inches
I may run another
Strand of hot wire up higher
We may get 2 feeder pigs to run with them


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## farmerjan (Dec 17, 2016)

What is the butcher there telling you that you will get back from the hanging weight?   Our butcher figures costs based on hanging weight, so usually a steer  will cost about $250 to 300 for processing.  We do at least 2-4 year, some to keep and some to sell.  We also do vacuum packaging. 
Don't know about the cost to feed them out since we do very little grain feeding.   We run about 200 cows that are split in 2 groups,  spring and fall calving, about 75 to 100 each.  Raise the calves to feeder sale size of 450-600 lbs.  I usually have 1-4 jersey steers every year and put one in the freezer yearly as well as my son selling a couple of angus/cross for beef but as I said we don't feed much grain.  The feedout costs seem a little high but I don't know what hay and feed costs in your area.  We figure 1 5x5 round bale per animal per 20 days,  but how long are you going to feed them?  You also should have a little milder temps there than we do here in the western part of VA, so they may not eat as much.   You will get a little more return of meat from the angus than I do from the jerseys, but not alot.
Since your father in law has been doing it for most all his life, I think you need to do it as he has done it and  to ask him specific questions about  the costs and all that.


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 17, 2016)

farmerjan said:


> What is the butcher there telling you that you will get back from the hanging weight?   Our butcher figures costs based on hanging weight, so usually a steer  will cost about $250 to 300 for processing.  We do at least 2-4 year, some to keep and some to sell.  We also do vacuum packaging.
> Don't know about the cost to feed them out since we do very little grain feeding.   We run about 200 cows that are split in 2 groups,  spring and fall calving, about 75 to 100 each.  Raise the calves to feeder sale size of 450-600 lbs.  I usually have 1-4 jersey steers every year and put one in the freezer yearly as well as my son selling a couple of angus/cross for beef but as I said we don't feed much grain.  The feedout costs seem a little high but I don't know what hay and feed costs in your area.  We figure 1 5x5 round bale per animal per 20 days,  but how long are you going to feed them?  You also should have a little milder temps there than we do here in the western part of VA, so they may not eat as much.   You will get a little more return of meat from the angus than I do from the jerseys, but not alot.
> Since your father in law has been doing it for most all his life, I think you need to do it as he has done it and  to ask him specific questions about  the costs and all that.


I think you and I are talking apples and oranges
Grass feed Jersey vs a heavily grained Angus
And we aren't looking at profit just coming out ahead on good quality beef
I think we will be OK on the deal considering you can't get good hamburger for less than $3.50 lb


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## farmerjan (Dec 17, 2016)

Checked on another forum about the percentage of beef and one said they got 55% return on hanging weight of beef in their freezer. That was an animal fed for 90 days before butcher. Counting all the marrow bones it was 60% return.  So I am not too far off in the return of actual meat in the freezer at 50% or a little more.


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 17, 2016)

farmerjan said:


> Checked on another forum about the percentage of beef and one said they got 55% return on hanging weight of beef in their freezer. That was an animal fed for 90 days before butcher. Counting all the marrow bones it was 60% return.  So I am not too far off in the return of actual meat in the freezer at 50% or a little more.


So
At the end of the day
If I feed 2 steers for 90 days
And at the end I own one of them
I'm pretty good 
Right ?


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## farmerjan (Dec 17, 2016)

Since most of the growing is already done, yes I think you will come out fine in the amount of meat you will get in return for the cost.  If you put  $700 feed into them, and yours costs $350 to process  that is 1050 in about 350 lbs meat then that is about 3.00 lb overall.  So you will be getting steaks and everything for $3.00 lb which is less than ground beef at the store and alot better quality.  Just for the sake of information, let us know what they weigh, live if possible, then hanging then the actual meat you get back.  I am going to make it a point of  weighing mine this year too so I can be more specific.  One year I did an actual break down of exactly what I got back too as far as quantity of each - like steaks, ground beef etc..  to try to show buyers what to expect.


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 18, 2016)

farmerjan said:


> Since most of the growing is already done, yes I think you will come out fine in the amount of meat you will get in return for the cost.  If you put  $700 feed into them, and yours costs $350 to process  that is 1050 in about 350 lbs meat then that is about 3.00 lb overall.  So you will be getting steaks and everything for $3.00 lb which is less than ground beef at the store and alot better quality.  Just for the sake of information, let us know what they weigh, live if possible, then hanging then the actual meat you get back.  I am going to make it a point of  weighing mine this year too so I can be more specific.  One year I did an actual break down of exactly what I got back too as far as quantity of each - like steaks, ground beef etc..  to try to show buyers what to expect.



I will get the weights
And I will probably get  quantities on steaks roast ground beef etc

I know we won't  do as well as we normally do
Normally they give us a quarter for Christmas 

It will be an interesting project at least


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## Latestarter (Dec 18, 2016)

Congrats on what sounds like a killer deal. Sorry to hear your FIL is having difficulties, but that's a LOT of work for an 88 year old. Probably what's kept him in good shape all these years.


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 18, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> Congrats on what sounds like a killer deal. Sorry to hear your FIL is having difficulties, but that's a LOT of work for an 88 year old. Probably what's kept him in good shape all these years.


He definitely needs to cut back but he definitely needs to keep a few to have something to keep him active
We think there were 10 heifers so we will start with them
Maybe a couple of the older cows
There are 8 bull calves that Maurine is going to "fix" this week 
I think they will sell some of them and keep a few to eat


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 18, 2016)

OneFineAcre said:


> So
> At the end of the day
> If I feed 2 steers for 90 days
> And at the end I own one of them
> ...


@farmerjan 

Hey 
I'm on my phone a lot and sometimes my posts are short
I read this today and it seemed kind of snarky
I didn't mean it that way
I appreciate your input

I was looking at last weeks sale prices and as low as they are now I think we are ahead of my in laws on this deal at least if they were to just sell the steers now


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## farmerjan (Dec 18, 2016)

I didn't take offense although I was a little uncertain of what you meant when you said we were talking apples and oranges since I thought that the first questions were about how much meat you could expect back, not what it would cost. 
But then I figured that maybe you were a little surprised that there wasn't more return from a full grown animal. 
Prices here on 8-9 wt steers are in the 1.00 to 1.15 range so they would not realize a great return on their steers.  I don't know what the markets there are like; but from what I am seeing they aren't great. I hate that they are going to sell in the worst time of the year, is there any way you can help them get through until it looks like grass in your area, say March or so?  The cows that are bred will bring a little better if people are looking for something to go on grass, at least around here. 
We just went to a bred cow sale last week and they brought in the 1100 to 1600 range.  That's confirmed, vet checked preg for spring calves.  Bred heifers brought 1100 to 1300.  Any cull cows, for slaughter, are only in the $.50 lb range.  We bought one with a calf by her side for 910. and another that was mostly longhorn with a calf for 485. That was barely kill price for her.  Don't know where you are in relation to a market and since your FIL has been doing this for a long time he should be fairly knowledgeable of the markets.  Maybe you/he can find someone looking for a set of bred cows.  A suggestion, you may want to keep a few more of the cows since they are already knowing what to do when calving comes around.  A heifer that is having trouble isn't something that an 88 year young man wants to tackle by himself whereas a cow is less likely to have problems....plus the heifers are worth twice what the cows are worth unless you find someone who wants them  bred.  2 years ago here they were worth 2500 head....
2 years ago that 8-9 wt steer would have brought 2.00 lb.  We sold 30, 430 lb avg steers for 1.25 back in Oct and 2 years ago we were getting 2.50 to 3.00 for that weight.  We knew that those prices were too high but no one ever expected it to take the nose dive it did.  We figure we can make a little money and pay our bills on 1.75 lb 450 wt steers.  The 2.50 was unreal, but we only got that for 18 months and then it dropped back to less than what we were getting 4 years ago, so any gains we made we have already lost financially.  Weaned heifers are barely bringing 1.00 lb for any weight from 350 to 900. And naturally we had 75% heifers born this fall so we will really be behind next year when we sell feeders.  
I always tell people to expect 25% of the live weight back in meat.  Then when they get a little more they are happy.  But still some people think that they will get back 800 lbs from a 1200 lb animal.  The weight of the guts, hide, head, legs/hooves from the knees/hocks down is ALOT.  And the better the finish on the animal, the greater fat trim you will get. So if you get 350 lbs meat that is over 35% of the total animal (1100lbs) so that is good.


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 18, 2016)

farmerjan said:


> I didn't take offense although I was a little uncertain of what you meant when you said we were talking apples and oranges since I thought that the first questions were about how much meat you could expect back, not what it would cost.
> But then I figured that maybe you were a little surprised that there wasn't more return from a full grown animal.
> Prices here on 8-9 wt steers are in the 1.00 to 1.15 range so they would not realize a great return on their steers.  I don't know what the markets there are like; but from what I am seeing they aren't great. I hate that they are going to sell in the worst time of the year, is there any way you can help them get through until it looks like grass in your area, say March or so?  The cows that are bred will bring a little better if people are looking for something to go on grass, at least around here.
> We just went to a bred cow sale last week and they brought in the 1100 to 1600 range.  That's confirmed, vet checked preg for spring calves.  Bred heifers brought 1100 to 1300.  Any cull cows, for slaughter, are only in the $.50 lb range.  We bought one with a calf by her side for 910. and another that was mostly longhorn with a calf for 485. That was barely kill price for her.  Don't know where you are in relation to a market and since your FIL has been doing this for a long time he should be fairly knowledgeable of the markets.  Maybe you/he can find someone looking for a set of bred cows.  A suggestion, you may want to keep a few more of the cows since they are already knowing what to do when calving comes around.  A heifer that is having trouble isn't something that an 88 year young man wants to tackle by himself whereas a cow is less likely to have problems....plus the heifers are worth twice what the cows are worth unless you find someone who wants them  bred.  2 years ago here they were worth 2500 head....
> ...


That's about what they are selling for here too
We are going to try to get them to hold out on selling for a while to see if prices go up


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 21, 2016)

@farmerjan 

I found these pictures from last year when the in laws gave us a quarter of a steer.

Not sure what it weighs, but this is what it looks like.


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## farmerjan (Dec 21, 2016)

Oh to have such a nice clean neat nearly empty  freezer....LOL .  Looks about like what we get except that I now get my ground beef in 1 lb packages vacuum packed.  They flatten it so that it fills a "square" package.  At first the butcher said that I was crazy, but I told him that I did not want it in the round "bags" as it was not vacuum packed and even though they get most all the air out.  So it comes back flat in a vacuum pack bag, and they are soo stackable.  Plus you can just take and cut it in 4 pieces and have 1/4 lb burgers....Now he says that he has nearly half the people getting theirs that way....and said look at what I started.  . It takes up alot less room that way and is alot easier to handle.  Looks like about 75 lbs meat and about a third of that is ground beef.  Nice looking steaks, seem to have some pretty good marbling.

Also, we just went and picked up 6 new bred cows that a friend had gotten.  He's a dealer and sometimes finds some pretty decent buys and since we are down about 20 cows from where we want to be.....2 - older bigger cows 950 ea, 2 - 3rd or 4th calf  cows 850 ea and 2 - 2nd calf young cows ( and High Strung as all get out!!!!) for 650 each.  Avg 800 / 6= $4800.  They are all 6+ months bred so will start in Feb/Mar.  That's alot less than what we saw 2 weeks ago.  For your FIL sake I sure hope they come up some by spring....If we can sell 500 lb heifers for 500 and buy back some bred cows @ 8-900  we are ahead since it will be 2+ years before the heifers would calve.  Granted we do keep our best heifers for replacements, but  it offers us a much quicker turn around.  They don't all work out and the 2 young ones may only be here til spring after they calve if their attitudes don't improve. We'll see.


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