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!

You got 26% if 451# was 'on the hoof'.
I'd expect 40% net of that gross weight.

What did you deliver to the processor?

Lots of variables go into the equation.

Was 450# the hanging weight, with hooves, head ect still attached? Or was it the live weight?

Where was the elk shot, how many times, what kind of damage did the bullet cause?

Some general rules that I've heard

ELK (hang weight at processor)
Bull: 250-500 lbs
Cow: 200-350 lbs
Calf: 60-100 lbs

Approx. Live Weight = Hanging weight x 1.65
(ex: 64 lb Antelope x 1.65 = 105 lb live weight)

TYPICAL BONELESS YIELDS ON WHOLE CARCASS
Very clean/Head Shot: 50-60% Yield
Average cleanliness/Heart shot: 50-55% Yield
Dirty carcass, shoulder or hind shot: 45-50% Yield

------

With that info
If 450 was the live weight, then 273 would be the hang weight. If it was an average shot , then my expectation would be 122# - 136# of meat. If you got back 116# and it looks well trimmed--- then it makes sense.

That is a good cow and the pounds of meat is right on the money.

I have killed lots of cows and I have run from 100 pounds, up to around 120 for the most part of closely trimmed, boned meat. I have never weighed any of them whole, though. You can get a bit more meat, if you strip the ribs and take every ounce of gristly neck meat etc., but it looks to me like your butcher trimmed it close and did a good job.

He may have kept a couple steaks for himself, though!

Sounds about right to me. My daughter just took about 193 lbs of meat from a 400+ pound cow, some still with the large bones, to a processor. She got back just about what your friend did.

Cows usually run maybe 450 pounds live weight.

Typically I get about 130 #'s of meat out of them. All with no bone.

I do my own as years ago the processor I used wasn't as finicky about cutting up as I was. I do a lot better job getting the meat off the bones, trimming, and cleaning

As others said, about the right amount. My bull was right at the 600 lb mark on the hoof. I got:
80 lbs sausage (50/50 mix with port trimmings)
80 lbs of hamburger (75/25 mix with bacon)
15 or so pounds of backstrap steaks
2 whole tenderloins (about 3-5 lbs each)
and 60-70 lbs of steaks from the hams.

Total elk meat around 180 lbs

Total with mix = 250 lbs or so.

After I killed a Wyoming cow elk recently, my dumbass ex-bil asked if I got 350-400 pounds of meat from her. I told him that I got the same amount of meat that got all of the other times he asked me! Many people are clueless, as to how much quality, trimmed meat that you get from a wild animal.

I usually expect roughly 30% of live weight, but that depends on how much meat was damaged by bullets, how thoroughly the processor trims fascia and fat, how fat and healthy the individual animal is, etc.

I'd say his return was reasonable, especially if he shot up the front shoulders, the butcher did a really good job of trimming and cleaning up the meat, etc. The pickier you are with your meat processing, the less you end up with

Live weight to carcass/hanging weight is about a 38 to 40% decline. Carcass weight to cut and wrapped is about a 70 to 75% yield if one does bone in saw cuts. Bone it out completely, and one is down to about a 55 to 60% yield based on carcass. A carcass has no head, hide, innards, or bone past the knees/hocks.

I'd say one is pretty close to being in the ball park, especially if there was some serious trim due to drying/contamination, blood shock, and fat. I always make a serious effort remove fat from large game. There are some fat soluble enzymes that can be active well below 32 degrees. With extended storage they can have a significant effect on flavor.

One can probably elevate yield by doing it your self, and taking it down to near a white skeleton. That is trimming everything as clean as possible with most that going into burger or stew meat. Given the volume handled, commercial folks cannot take the time to shave off those last tiny bits.

In the beef world where things are relatively sterile and clean, one can expect about 350 lbs of meat from a 1,000 lb live weight steer. I.e live to cut and wrapped is about a 35% yield.

451 lbs field dressed as she hangs right there and delivered to processor as is. For scale, he's 6'3". She's frozen rock solid there. 1 shot from a 7mm MAG Kongsberg Lakelander, 165gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw to the lungs. DRT.

I found this to be an interesting study. The cow pictured above was obviously weighed with its knees and hocks intact.

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

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.

Yep, he charged $416.50. No specialty cuts or anything added. We should have thought of that, but she was frozen like a brick. Would've needed a chainsaw to get through it.

The "troops" are Michigan Department of Natural Resources biologists and wildlife techs. It's a pretty heavily regulated hunt. We have to mark the gut pile so they can inspect it and take samples later. They weigh it and age it - although they couldn't get the mouth pried open because it was frozen too. Believe me, those "troops" were nowhere to be found when we had to get her off the side hill ravine. Not sure I've ever had a harder job in my 42 years of hunting. She was shot at 4pm. We didn't get back until 10. Those 3 fingers of Basil Hayden tasted awfully damn good.

Yeah, I kinda think he's eating well (the butcher that is). The packages were either marked "steaks" or "burger". No roasts whatsoever. The tenderloins weren't marked, neither were the backstraps or chops. All the steak packages are the same shape and size. He got 2 boxes of meat total, 30" X 30" X 8".

An old butcher and friend of mine told me that 41% of live weight was meat weight if there is no waist and the cutting is done clean.
So you loose 24% to 25% in field dressing. A 450 pound hanging animal weights 562 live.

417% of 562 = 230.62 So call it 231 pounds if it was a super clean kill, and if the butcher is very good at what he does.

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.

Last years bull

Boned out and packed out

265 lbs

Note.I said cows,not bulls

The biggest cow I ever shot weighed 330 on the hook...dressed and hide, head, and legs off. That was the last time I had a processor do one for me. I don't remember how much meat I got back, or even if I had them bone it or not.

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 killed and cut/wrapped over 20 cow elk in my life. I have scaled some of them. I have seen one go 475 with hide and hooves and it was much bigger than average. Most will hang hide on hooves on @ 400-450 on my scale. I cut and wrap my own and do not include any bones in my meat. I average 120ish pounds of meat. I'm not afraid to toss any bloodshot, hairy, or silver tissue rich meat. I would guess my scrap box of meat and tissue runs 20lbs +/-.

At 116 pounds I'd say your numbers are right on for a picky wrapper.

Bay City. My buddy is from Merrill, but lives in the Walled Lake area now. He's the one that got the tag.

The last beef we butchered weighed 1250 pounds. Scale weight live. Three of us split it and each got 165 pounds. + or- a bit. That is 445 pounds total. That was 35% or so of the live weight, bone in.

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?

I picked up my cow from the huttes this November. Pretty sure the bill was $165 for processing and $25 to skin. I counted the burger packages at 33 which was pretty close to my 29 from the cow that I did last year on my own. Though I was pretty fussy and had more trimmings.
It always seems like ya should get more...

This exactly. If you get 150 pounds of meat from a cow elk on a regular basis, you are keeping a lot of fat and other junk in the meat to add pounds.

Some of the Arizona and New Mexico cows are pretty big, because they do not have as rough of winters in many spots. However, there are not a lot of them that will produce 150+ pounds of well-trimmed, processed meat.

If I paid $400 to pick up a little over 100lbs of meat with no specialty sausage etc. I would be beyond pissed off. Many folks are being polite and giving the butcher the benefit of the doubt. He only deals with Michigan Elk hunters once in a lifetime.......doesn't care for repeat business.

We usually end up packing out boned meat and do the butchering when we get home. If I can get my buddy Dave to help / takeover it looks like the buzzards have already been on the carcass a few days when he is done, I do my best to get all the meat but I'm not as skilled. This year the boned out meat from a large cow filled a 165 qt cooler and weighs at least 150 lbs. that was with a little off side shoulder damage. Final butchering had less than 10% additional waste..........cost about $30 for vacuum bags.

The guy in Northern Colorado we use in years one comes out whole early is around $250 with some sausage included and gets a better yield than your guy in Michigan.

Pretty close

Didn't weigh the net but this cow had a carcass weight of 365....no head, hide or lower legs

I'm betting this NM cow was very close to 500 but she was very old

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.

I have no way of verifying, nor have I weighed any elk, but I inquired about this several years ago at a meat processor in Craig, CO where I have had several bulls processed. I was told that bulls will yield 160-200 pounds packaged meat.

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.

Here's a very average cow in my area. 400 lbs hanging

Remember beef has been bred for decades to yield more meat. Also many beef steak cuts will include bone, as in T bones, 7 bone chuck, and round steak.......and so on and on. Generally wild game is processed boneless due to CWD concerns, hunting harvest will often incur trim loss, as compared to captive bolt or "head shot" harvest in the beef industry. As a rule of thumb I figure half of a big game critters live weight is carcass, and half of the carcass weight is meat. So take live weight and multiply by 0.25. Example (450 x 0.25)= 112.5 pounds of meat. One can use this equation backwards to estimate live weight from meat harvest after butchering.

I have never taken an animal to a processor.
In my personal experience I believe my final yield to be about right for a general rule I got from somewhere for large game.

Field dressed, you salvage 60% of live weight.
Processing for consumption you salvage 60% of field dressed weight.
Therefore you should normally get about 36% of live weight for consumption. That would mean that you salvaged all the meat using trimmings, rib, neck meat etc for things like burger or summer sausage plus your steaks, roasts, etc.

So, 500 pounds live should yield about 180 pounds of meat.
My experience with deer, speed goats and elk have approximated this less stuff lost to damage or just not saved by me.

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.

Roosevelt elk are very big. I have seen some whopper cows here in Idaho also.

This is a better than average cow for my area. Bout 450lbs.

This was a roosevelt that I killed. It stood with 40 others and was one of the better cows. I'd be surprised if it yielded more than 15 lbs more than my rockys.

As to the reference to a lot of burger from a processor...
Processors add beef or pork to venison, antelope a elk when they make it into summer sausage and some also put some in with burger. Could have been part of the abundance of burger.
And it just might have been a frugal processor and a very large cow.

Yeah we don't have to worry about CWD so that's nice. There's good meat on the neck but it's a pain to get, when I bone them out in the field I only get the biggest chunks off it. The neck does indeed have some lymph glands and stuff, a very large tendon especially on bulls, we have to pick through it. Much easier to do on a table than in the field. The ribs are a pain and that's exactly right, by the time you cut through all the fat and connective tissue there's not much. The meat surrounding the ribcage has some good chunks but the ribs proper is a lot of trim for a little meat. But it all adds up, we are allowed 1 deer and 1 elk a year IF you get drawn, it's a lottery. We stretch it best we can.



Yep. When we have to pack them out there's definitely less, for a packed/boned out cow I would say 115lbs is fine. But the OP looks like the butcher got a pretty whole cow elk. I'd have gotten him more meat

That's a lot of meat

Is that pure burger, or fat-added burger?

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

I'm sure not packing a scale and block and tackle around the mountains just to weigh a whole elk. The closest I get to weighing is when I load the pieces on my llamas. I need to weigh the panniers to keep them balanced. That will include bag and pannier weight and only the long bones if I leave them in.

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?

I had them add 2% beef fat.

Five to seven I'll bet. There's a big bone running through it, not to mention those monstrous yellow tendons.



P

I don't take the bones, or throat.....I'm in the 5-7 camp.

I have a hand scale to balance my loads for the mules, (this scale is not calibrated) . But it just occurred to me last night are some people talking live weight, and others gutted weight with head and hide and hooves still on? Certainly a carcass will be a bigger percentage of the total mass of the later over the former.

It would be very rare to have anyone post a live weight (or freshly killed before gutting).

Another thing I would like to share is I took a venison neck and simmered it in broth and onions and spices for several hours, until the meat started falling of the bones. Let it cool, pulled the meat, and had enough for two gallons of stew. It was only a small whitetail neck. I could just imagine the amount of meat possible from an elk neck braised, and the the meat pulled in this fashion.

The two bull elk where I had the meat weighed, resulted in 225lbs and 250lbs of boned out meat. It felt closer to 1000lb on my back by the time the last load is hauled out.

We don't have a pot nearly big enough for a whole elk neck.

Got a saws all? Get that neck cut up 2 pot sized chunks, CWD be dammed! I figure as long as I do not die of cirrhosis .............I win!

I trim every bit off the neck I can and grind it for burger. No fat added.

Sky Lakes Wilderness, Oregon. 4x4 Roosevelt. Went from this:





To this:










P

Pharmseller,

Maybe I'm sick, but those photos make a fun sequence for me.

I'll probably get yelled at again, but my elk yielded 241 pounds in various cuts, including LOTS of ground..

That weight makes more sense to me. 240 divided by .25 equals 960 pounds. I just had a large 5 or smallish but very wide 6 point in the hedgerow this morning. My wife ( she is an excellent stockperson) agrees with me that pot licker weighed closer to nine hundred than 500 live weight.

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

I'll bet, but I wasn't about to carry it four miles to the trailhead.




P

If one divides 240 by .36 your elk would have weighed 667 pounds live weight.

If one divides 240 by .36 your elk would have weighed 667 pounds live weight.

And that is about right.

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

Today I remember a cow I got to the processor with the skin, head and legs on it. It weighed 390 pounds. But I don't remember how much meat I got from that one.

That is pretty close and they even say that you may be 17-18 pounds lighter without the flank, brisket etc., which would be more like a field processed elk-like mine.

Subtract that weight and the numbers are pretty close to what mine have been over the years.

MDNR biologists told us in a mandatory class we had to take before getting the tag, that Michigan elk are, on average, quite a bit bigger than their Rocky Mtn. brethren. This is due to the fact that they are basically flatlanders eating agricultural crops for most of their lives. Their muscles aren't as lean as those at elevation out west. They simply eat and don't move as much or as strenuously.

Every one of the elk shot in the Michigan hunt must be checked in, aged, and weighed as they have for the past 30 years. heads must be submitted for CWD check. As you can see in the previous photo, that cow was 451 pounds gutted. Mine in '98 was 430 pounds gutted. gutted is hanging weight without the guts, but with everything else attached.

I agree with your assessment that a 450 pound gutted elk should yield more meat than .25. I apologize for causing any confusion.

I've cut up about 25 cow elk and around 15 bulls in the last dozen years or so. I'm pretty particular about my meat and trim way more than a butcher so my yields are lower but this is about what I've seen for yields.

Cows 100-150lbs A yearling cow shot in August would be at the lower end of that and a old cow shot in November or December seems to be at the upper end.

Small bulls 175-200lbs

Big bulls can be 250+lbs

One of the bulls I shot this year was the biggest elk I've been next to. The neck muscles were massive. We boned out the front shoulders, the back straps, and the neck meat all in separate bags. There was less than 5lb difference in weight between the bags. Obviously I can't weigh them now but I'd have made a pretty sizable wager the neck meat was over 30lbs. The chunks from each side were as heavy as the back straps. When someone says 5-7lbs of neck meat from the usual elk I would say they are damn close to the average. This was no average elk though.

I would say the yield from that elk, which was pretty heavy already gutted, should have been at least 30+lbs more considering he most likely added beef or pork fat to get to the 116lbs. His yield should have been at least 1/3 of the gutted weight IMO. Elk do vary a lot in body composition and the time of year but a 500+lb live weight cow is pretty big. I wouldn't be surprised to see 150-175lbs of meat come off that elk because it's pushing the size of many raghorn bulls around here.

Anyone have an idea what percentage of the total weight the boned quarters turn out to be?


Okie John

It's a variable. If you neck shot an elk your yield would be much higher than if you shoulder shot one. 25% +/- of live weight will get you in the hunt.

This may not help the OP answer his question ... but my wife and I just finished butchering this elk. For the area I usually hunt in I considered it to be slightly larger than average. We let it hang a week and then spent three days working on the processing ... a little at a time. The end result was exactly 150 pounds of packaged, boneless meat. We added nothing to the grind.

Our final tally was 61 pounds of roasts, 71 pounds of grind meat and 18 pounds of steaks.

This cow was shot once through the ribs just above the heart with a 300 Win Mag using 180 gr. Nosler Partitions. There was minimal damage to the meat, perhaps a couple of handfuls of thin rib flesh that was bloodshot. We discarded a little over a 5-gal bucket of silverskin, fat, connective tissue and tendons. There was some rind trimmed off too, mostly on the shanks.

My last 5X5 yeilded 210 lbs. of boneless meat with no fat added.

Owned a couple processing plants and worked in several others , when you bring something in with the legs, hide head,usually gutted poorly full of dirt, bloodshot meat. "you just what you get" !!!!!!!!!!