Guess we grow them big in AZ and it must be the genes because it ain't the feed. Our winters are easy compared to any real weather but the elk are lean. Big bulls can have some fat to speak of but calves and December cows that still have milk in their udders are lean critters. I'm gonna estimate live weight on a typical AZ cow elk at 400-450lbs.
Cartilage, large tendonous stuff and large fascia and connective tissue makes the scrap bucket. We hunt cows in flat land mostly and are able to drive to them and get the whole sh*tteree. We bone out the neck and the ribcage and we do a thorough job of it. Zero elk fat goes into the mix but like I said, there ain't much to cut. We don't grow the good grass here, takes rainfall to do that.
Dad got 155lbs yield off his cow this year which is about typical, nice mature cow, that includes the beef fat (mix our grind at about 10%) and few to no bones so a reasonably comparable figure to what you'd get back from a butcher. He does grind heavy, he prefers burgers to steaks or roasts.
For reference, my wife's bull this year yielded about 225lbs and it was a mature 6x6, not huge and not big bodied. I'd estimate ~600lbs on the hoof, maybe 650? As I recall Tedhorn's post from last year, his was a clearly bigger bodied bull than what we butchered this year.
To be clear, the total range of cows is more like 140-175lbs with 140 being the young yearling type cows and 175lbs being outlier whopper cows. We've got a couple over the years but we're not routinely getting 175lbs from cow elk. The mode is more like 145-155lbs for a typical, mature cow elk. Yearling spike bulls are generally right in there with mature cows, sometimes a tad heavier. 155lbs yield is a very typical mature AZ cow yield. I've not butchered one from any other state. YMMV.
That sounds about right considering how you are processing one, adding 10% beef fat, taking rib meat,and neck.
I do the no gut method and don't take between the ribs.That is 50% fat anyway. I usually lose the flank meat, I don't add fat to the grind,and CPW reccomends not taking much of the neck as the lymp glands are there and CWD is prevalent in many units in Colorado
