Yield math surprised me: whole carcass vs retail cuts in Kansas City

I was breaking down a 750 pound steer last Tuesday and decided to actually track every single piece that went into the vacuum bags versus what got trimmed. I found out the retail cuts only came to about 58% of the hot carcass weight, and that surprised me because I always assumed we were recovering closer to 65%. The trim went to grind, which makes good money, but the bones and fat loss added up to more than I thought. I double checked my scale and the math twice, same number both times. My mentor always told me to budget for yield loss but never showed me the real breakdown. Has anyone else run the numbers on their own rail and found a different percentage than the textbooks say?

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the_jessica1mo ago

Laughed at the part where you double checked the scale like the scale was the one lying to you. Welcome to the club, my friend, because 58% on a whole carcass to retail cuts is honestly pretty normal once you actually weigh everything instead of guessing. The 65% number floating around is usually hanging weight to take home weight on a half or quarter, and even that assumes you keep every scrap of grind and don't trim hard. Bones alone run 15 to 20% of the carcass, fat another chunk, and shrink during chill adds up too, so the textbook number everyone quotes is doing a lot of wishful thinking. Your mentor probably never weighed the bones either, he just trusted the old rule of thumb. Track a few more and you'll probably land between 55 and 60% every time, and the grind money is what saves the day.

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