Meat yield calculators

Estimate how much packaged meat you'll take home from a live animal: live weight − what the processor removes = take-home weight. That take-home share differs a lot by species — roughly 40% of live weight for beef, 50% for pork, and 35% for lamb or goat — because dressing percentages and cut styles differ. Chicken is the exception: it's quoted as dressed weight, bones and all, at about 70%.

Each calculator carries species-typical numbers and the details that move them — grain- or grass-finished presets for beef, a shot-placement deduction for deer — so pick the animal you're sending to the processor.

Beef yield calculator

≈ 40%

Estimate the packaged beef you'll take home from a live steer or heifer — typically about 40% of live weight, and 57–66% of hanging weight depending on cut style.

Open the beef calculator

Pork yield calculator

≈ 50%

Estimate the packaged pork a market hog will put in your freezer — typically about 50% of live weight.

Open the pork calculator

Chicken yield calculator

≈ 70%

Estimate dressed weight from live broilers — head, feet, and organs removed, bones kept. Typically about 70% of live weight.

Open the chicken calculator

Deer yield calculator

≈ 50%

Estimate venison from a live deer — field dressing and boning typically leave about 50% of live weight as meat and grind.

Open the deer calculator

Lamb yield calculator

≈ 35%

Estimate the packaged lamb you'll take home from a live lamb — typically about 35% of live weight.

Open the lamb calculator

Goat yield calculator

≈ 35%

Estimate the packaged goat meat you'll take home from a live goat — typically about a third of live weight.

Open the goat calculator

These are planning estimates

One thing to watch: a species' dressing percentage — the 50–75% figure you'll see quoted — is hanging weight, not what you carry home. The badges above are packaged take-home meat. Yield also varies with cut style (bone-in vs. boneless), how much fat and trim is kept, moisture loss while aging, and whether you take the organs home. Use a calculator to plan a batch or compare processors, then confirm the expected weight with the plant before you send an animal.

Find a USDA-inspected processing plant near you

Raising animals to sell shares? See custom-exempt processors who can process under your brand.