Hanging Weight vs. Live Weight vs. Packaged Weight on a Cow: Breaking it Down

In today’s Factual Friday, we’re going to keep it brief and talk about beef. 

We sell beef by the quarter, half, and whole share, and one of the most common questions we receive is, “how much meat will I get back?”

That’s always a tough question to answer because it depends on a lot of different variables.

How big is the cow? This, itself, is kind of a loaded question. How old was the animal when it was slaughtered? What breed (an Angus will generally produce more meat than a Jersey, as an example)? How did it hold its weight? How was it fed?

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Hanging Weight vs. Live Weight vs. Packaged Weight

The graphic I’ve included is from the University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture that breaks down where each cut on a cow comes from. 

If you’ve ever wondered why you ordered a quarter share of a cow and can’t just get back ribeyes, this chart should break it down. Each cut (sirloin steaks, rib steaks, T-bone steaks, top round roasts, etc) come from a different area on the animal. 

Now, when you buy a half of a cow, for example, you aren’t just getting “the back half” or “the front half.” That wouldn’t be very fair. 

Instead, if you choose to buy a half cow from us, you’re splitting it with another customer. 

The cuts will be equally divided, so you’d essentially get “half the back” and “half the front” (an oversimplification of how that works, but basically, it makes sure everybody gets a little bit of everything and you aren’t shorted on any specific cuts).

Then, there’s a bit of confusion between hanging weight versus live weight versus meat received back (packaged weight).

“Live weight” refers to the weight of an animal before it is butchered - when it is alive. Simple enough.

Hanging weight is the weight of the animal after it’s been slaughtered and the blood has been drained and the head, feet, hide, organs, and entrails removed. On average, the hanging weight of a cow is roughly 60% of the live weight (but again, there are lots of variables involved here - no two animals are exactly the same).

Beef Hanging Weight vs. Live Weight vs. Packaged: How To Charge

As producers, we charge by the hanging weight because the butcher charges by the hanging weight. This is somewhat controversial, as it can admittedly be confusing to the customer (more on this in a moment). So why do we do it, especially when we charge our customers a set rate per hanging pound, plus the cost of butchering?

It’s simple - by charging by the hanging weight, instead of the final packaged weight, we’re giving you, the consumer, more options.

If we sold simply by the packaged weight, we’d have to offer a standard selection of cuts. When we sell you a quarter, half, or whole beef, you can customize to get exactly what you want - cutting steaks to different thicknesses, opting out of roasts and having them ground, and so on.

If you were to opt for a lot of bone-in cuts, and then pay by the packaged weight, you’d pay a lot more for the same quarter of beef than another customer who chose all boneless cuts. 

Some other choices that can result in a lower packaged weight versus hanging weight include opting for more grind than cuts (if you’re getting all burger, you’re not getting any bones and the meat is more compact, hence a lower weight). The same goes for opting out of bone-out roasts and steaks, or opting out of soup bones, tallow (fat), and offal (organs like the heart and liver).

How Much Meat Do You Get From Half a Cow?

So how much meat will you get back as your “packaged” weight compared to hanging weight? Remember the factors above - there’s a lot of variation. In general, animals yield 50 to 75% of the hanging weight as retail cuts. So if you have a 650 lb hanging weight you’ll get around 325-480 pounds of meat back on a whole share.

Why not just roll all of our costs into one “lump” price and make it easier on customers? Again, it limits customization. 

We understand that Customer A might have six kids who all really like cheeseburgers and tacos but can’t stand steaks - so buying their entire share as ground beef makes more sense. 

But Customer B is an older couple that enjoys throwing some steaks on the grill every weekend, making a Monday night roast in the slow cooker, and cooking up the organ meats for their dog. If we charged by the packaged weight, we wouldn’t be able to offer that kind of customization (or we would simply have to charge a lot more across the board).

Hanging Weight of Beef Price: An Ethical Way to Charge?

There are a lot of producers who really, really hate selling by the hanging weight. They feel as though it’s a deceptive way to market beef and is confusing to the customer. I agree that it’s confusing, but I don’t think it’s deceptive. 

It’s the best way to make sure both the farmer and the consumer are getting the fairest possible prices (and the exact products they wanted). But it does require some additional education on behalf of the farmer. It’s our responsibility to make sure our customers know exactly how we charge and to make sure we’re recording their exact preferences when the meat is cut up.

And again, this is somewhat of an oversimplification of what goes into marketing and pricing an animal (there are also some regulations from the USDA thrown in there about how direct-to-consumer sales like these have to be marketed when they are cut by a custom processor rather than USDA stamped), but hopefully, these basics help clear things up for you. 

As always, the best way to figure out how much meat you’ll get back (and what types) is to talk to your farmer. We always take the time to sit down with our customers and chat about how they want their pork or beef cut up, because it’s important. You’re spending a lot of money on meat, so you should have a say about what’s going into your freezer. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!