Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How much meat yield from an elk?

My buddy drew a coveted Michigan elk tag. It's a once on a lifetime opportunity. We had a blast! We hunted for 6 days through some of the toughest conditions (2 feet of snow, blizzard conditions, sub-zero windchills, whiteouts) I've hunted in. He scored a nice cow at 451 pounds that last day of our hunt. He's been my best friend for 30 years and I'll never forget the memories we made.

Anyway, due to time and lack of resources to handle a 450# completely frozen animal, he opted to take it to a processor. In return, he got 116# of meat or about a 1/4. That seemed light to both of us. We never weighed the elk we've shot in CO or WY, so we can't really correlate the yield. I always thought we got about a 1/3 back which should be around 150#. I'm curious as to what your experience has been regarding yields from your elk. Thanks!

Given the head, hide, feet, and a few lbs of snow are still attached, I think one came out about right on yield.

Where are those troops with the tractor, trailer, and lift when I drop one? No pack frames in that pic. Envious.

Just a word: Most cutters bill $$/lb for delivered hanging weight. Strip off the head, hide, and feet, and one will save substantially. One paid for those pounds, and within seconds they were in the bone barrel.

We get 150-175lbs meat yield from mature cow elk (450lbs live weight about right). Small to medium bulls go 180-225 lbs generally. 116lbs seems light to me but there are variables to consider like how dirty it was. Having butchered 30+ elk, if I took a mature clean cow to the butcher and got 115lbs back I'd be pissed.

Last years bull

Boned out and packed out

265 lbs

I have yet in my long years of elk hunting seen a cow that weighs 500+ pounds and I have killed a lot of them and I have yet to get more than 150 pound of meat out of one.

Butchering beef ( of which I have done more than a few) is different than butchery elk. Completely different yields.

CFT, did you use a processor in the Atlanta area? You are playing in my backyard there....

Well Saddlesore makes a good point, and the 41% rule may be for beef only. I don't honestly know. Maybe the % will be a lot less on elk or deer then it will be on beef. Cows sure are chunker than deer so that probably is the case.

I always do my own butchering, but I don't weigh the meat. I cut and wrap for size not weight. (so it fits as I want it to in my freezers)

I have yet in my long years of elk hunting seen a cow that weighs 500+ pounds and I have killed a lot of them and I have yet to get more than 150 pound of meat out of one.

Butchering beef ( of which I have done more than a few) is different than butchery elk. Completely different yields.

Well heck....it seems my friend told me wrong. He said 41% cut clean.
So if you got 35%, and that was WITH the bones, then 41% is WAY off.
So what would you guess?
Maybe 30%-32%% cut clean?

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.

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

If you are getting them out whole, vs packing out pieces, you are definitely getting more meat, also. I bring out quarters, tenderloins and back straps, with maybe a bit of other scrap thrown in. If you have it hanging there whole, you can work on it a bit better.

Based on the numbers I read here I killed a huge cow. The farmer who owned the land on which I hunted wanted his half in hamburger. The processor made 125 packages of one pound each. I received 125 pounds of steaks and a little hamburger. That means a cow running about 700 on the hoof. The processor told me it was the biggest cow he ever saw. I think the back to belly was 28" laying there before I gutted it.

Are these 450 pound cows weighed with the guts in them?

Is that pure burger, or fat-added burger?

OK, guys. Like RC I don't pack a scale, (even for weighing panniers). But on another forum a guy made a comment about getting 30 lbs of boned meat off a bull elk neck. I generally don't get too careful about getting every last scrap off a neck, but that sure seems way high in my experience. How much is there on one, really?

OK, guys. Like RC I don't pack a scale, (even for weighing panniers). But on another forum a guy made a comment about getting 30 lbs of boned meat off a bull elk neck. I generally don't get too careful about getting every last scrap off a neck, but that sure seems way high in my experience. How much is there on one, really?

And Pharmseller if you cooked down that cleaned neck I bet beer to spuds you could get a gallon or two of stew made.

This is the best guide to what to expect in the way of meat yield that I have seen. And based on my personal experience I think it's accurate.

http://www.wyomingextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B594R.pdf