Meat Yield Calculation
You can calculate the expected hot carcass weight and final "retail" yield for your beef, sheep, and hogs using this Excel spreadsheet. You will need the animal's live weight (or an estimate of it), the dressing percentage, and cutting yield. The spreadsheet has some default values, but you can refine them using the information in the article Did the Locker Plant Steal Some of My Meat?.
You can also calculate what your customer will pay in total dollars and also in terms of pounds of meat received. You will need to know your slaughter fee, cut and wrap cost, and other fees, such as offal disposal fee. Again, I have included some default values. If you sell by hanging weight you will need to experiment with the liveweight cost to find one that results in your hanging weight price.
Click here to download a copy of the spreadsheet. This is a MS Excel 2000 spreadsheet; earlier versions of Excel and other spreadsheet software may not be able to open this file. Feel free to write or call if you have questions.
This spreadsheet was developed for the VT Agency of Agriculture, Food, & Markets as part of a grant to improve the quality of Vermont meat products.
Last modified July 29 2005 04:22 PM
