Average amount of meat after processing?
 

Last year I got back 25 lbs. of meat from the processor for a very small whitetail doe. This year I only got 28 lbs. though I am sure this deer was about 30 lbs. heavier to start with. I know the deer should have been weighed before taking it in to know for sure, but it just makes me wonder. I did shoot the deer in the stomach making a heck of a mess so I am sure I lost something to the lower belly area. But still....
I will surely weigh my deer the next time:D
Is there a sort of general ratio I can go by for the next time?

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

Jen approx. 1/3 of live weight will transpire to boned out meat for the freezer. In your case you'd be looking at a live weight animal of about 85lbs which would only be a few punds heavier than last years animal...so if you think it weighted 30 pounds heavier your meat take should have been 10 pounds more at 38lbs. Again some deer are more and some are less really depends on the individual deer but this would get you close.

As to shooting in the guts, won't ruin much meat. The only thing you'll ruin on a stomach in and out shot is flank and some intercostal rib meat, which amounts to very little in total make up a deer carcass/meat you get. However if you got the deer in the backstraps that can account for a lot of meat loss.

My best advice is do it yourself, than you know your getting what you got. It ain't that hard and plenty of books, videos and people here that will help you out in getting started.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

PGC offers a "live weight tape" for sale on their website for $1. They used to give out cards with a graph that showed a comparison between live weight/field dressed weight/meat yield. According to this chart, a 90 lb deer yields about 55 lbs of meat.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

if you shot the deer in the stomach then you harldy would lose any meat, the only meat that would be affected would be rib meat and most butchers dont even cut that out....
but you dont get a lot of meat out of a deer,
i cut my own up and debone everything and believe me you dont get a lot...

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

Why don't you try butchering one yourself - it's really not that hard and doesn't take that long. You will know that you are getting all the meat back from your deer and you can make the cuts that you want.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

Mike I assume that example is 90 pound deer dressed to yeild 55 lbs of meat? If you have a dressed weight figure about 62% will return in deboned meat 90 dressed =55lbsmeat. A 90 live weight animal will return about 30lbs meat, it can vary slightly but not by much.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

So... you're saying you only get 1/3 the animals live weight in meat. That sounds a little low to me, but I've only shot about 30 deer. I weigh most of them, but don't weigh the yielded meat.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

I agree with Skeeter. Of course, deer will vary somewhat, and different butchers do different things. But once you field dress, and lose the head, hide, and bones ...there's really not alot of sheer weight left. Unless of course you get one of those monster canada deer.... then you may have something ;)

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

WV...LMAO our deer are bigger in body size so yes it will transfer to more meat but the ratio stay pretty much the same.

Coolbreeze there isn't a fool proof method other than weighing each animal in each stage and you'll still find differences. The 1/3 is a rough guess but by no means a true indicator, factors such as shot damage, condition of the animal(ie: fat content, development of muscles, etc) all play a role. But the average deer is made up of 2/3rds waste when you factor in guts, hide, fat & bones. Beef are about 1/4 usage only domestic pigs yield higher than a wild animal in usable meat vs live weight. When you put in perspective the amount of meat you get out of a deer is pretty effecient compared to domestic forms...just shear body mass is indicative to low haul. Take a 900 lbs moose your looking at 300 plus lbs of meat, vs a 900 steer where you'll end up with about 200 lbs. I am talking about boned out, trimmed meat here....that steak with the thick piece of fat isn't 16oz of solid meat...catch my drift.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

I only got one so far, a 7pt .
It was weighed by the butcher dressed (gutted only-hide on) at 130# and I got back about 55# of meat. That means about 42% of the dressed weight was meat.

If the meat yield is only 1/3 of the live weight (as suggested above by Skeeter), then my deer was about 165#(3x55#) live. If the live weight was 165# and the dressed weight was 130#, then my gutpile weighed 35# !!!???

I did not weigh the gutpile, of course, but that sounds about 20 or 25 pounds too heavy. If the butcher shorted me, then this would make even less sense.

Anybody got any other ideas??
No disrespect guys. I'm just learning here, but my numbers don't add up.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

Bulzeye, I said it is an estimate not an actual. Even if you dropped 15 pounds of the guts your looking at 50 lbs of meat with 1/3 formula..it is the best way i know to guess at what you'll get out of an animal. Also your 130 include the hide, head and so on...drop that weight off and you'll find a dressed deer (which is ready to be processed-hide, head, guts, legs gone) will transpire in the 60% range of meat. Again these are approx. numbers not actual, other factors are involved and one deer might be 38% while the other might be 30% of live weight...obviously with equal weighted animals the meat take will be different, therefore no exact calculator or tool to accurately perdict what you'll end up with, just a rough guess that i know of. Sorry like I said it is the best I can do and I won't profess to be the expert either. I have butchered all my own game for a number of years and yet many other guys as well. 100% honest I hardly ever weigh animals or meat anymore, it really isn't that important to me doing it myself and for those who ask me to it for them they know they are getting what they brought in. Maybe somebody has a better tool out there and will provide it for you, but this has got me close in the past.

No disrespect intended or felt:)

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

I agree with Skeeter here. I also am by no means an expert, but have been cutting up my own deer for quite a few years. The last 3 seasons I have weighed the deer dressed prior to processing, then I weigh the processed meat after I am done. Just been doing it for curiosty sakes.

It has varied from 30-40% of the dressed weight, like skeeter said it depends on shot placement, meat damage, etc. That is a pretty good figure though, I also have asked alot of other guys who process their own and they concur with the 30-40% ratio.

A 170# buck I shot this year yielded 55# of meat, that=32% yield. A 100 lb. doe I shot last year yielded me 35# of meat, that=35%. And I have gotten up to 40% also, but I'm really picking at the meat and grinding all the scraps I can find into hamburger.

The dang guts, hide, bone and head weigh alot fellas, no doubt there

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

Thanks for the help....
Like I said, last years doe was smaller - kinda scrawny really. So it must have been almost a yearling. This years doe was almost what I would call mature size. She was very healthy overall. In fact, I would sure like to know where she was feeding because that stomach was jam packed (like a football) with green leaves.
I have heard of cattle yielding about 1/4 of their weight in meat so I think I will use the 1/3 weight as an average - as long as the deer is healthy.
As for butchering my own. I would like to someday but I still feel I have a lot to learn. This deer was only my third so I am lucky to know exactly what to do just to field dress it.:D My brother and uncle process their own now so I guess I will have to get together with one of them to see how it goes.
THANKS AGAIN!

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

Well, I'm gonna quote from an official PGC publication. They say: "A deer which had a live weight of 120 lbs would have a field dressed weight of about 97 lbs and about 55 lbs of edible meat". Their formula from their graph would indicate about half the weight of a "live weight" deer results in edible meat.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

(Skeeter) That's the difference....

Looks like we were just talking about different levels of "dressed".
Folks around my area consider a deer field dressed as soon as it's been gutted.
My hunting buddies and I only take it that far and then it's off to the butcher.

I'd love to do the whole nine yards from kill to plate, but I don't think the wife will go for it. I'm lucky to get to display my mounts in the main part of the house. Maybe I can cape one out sometime when it's not too cold.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

I've always found it to be around 40% or so meat vs. dressed weight, although this can hardly be called accurate since I never weighed the meat itself, just the dressed deer. Also, a lot depends on shot placement. On an average 200 pound buck, I'd say it's not uncommon to have around 100 pounds of meat if there wasn't much damage.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

Sorry Bulzeye about the confussion, we call it field dressed as well when gutted but dressed really means undressed(ready to butcher) to us northerners...EH!;) Most places here will not accept animals not skinned any longer, something I forget isn't the norm elsewhere...oops.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

For deboned meat, you should get back at least 35 to 40 percent of the live weight. This is on an average lean deer. Obviously the more fat , the lower the percentage.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

The 1/3 is right on. I have butchered my own deer for over 20 years and the
formula is 1/3 boneless, fat-free, filler- free meat compared to body size.

One the reasons I do my own deer is because of what some butchers
cut off of a deer and call edible.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

I have done my own processing for 20 years. The reason I started doing my own is because my wife worked in a local , small meat processing plant that butchered beef, and deer in season. Hunters bring their deer in, they are weighed cut up ground or whatever. all the meat is put in big tubs. They then weigh out the proper amount, & you get a little of everybodys meat. I have seen deers brought in that have laid in the woods overnight, then laid in the back of pickups for hours without being field dressed. They have so many deer to process, that they don't tak time to trim fat, grissle, damaged meat. It is faster to grind it all, which is why you get a high ratio of meat. Ask your prosseror if you get your own meat back. Ask him if you can observe his meat processing proceedures. If he is doing a large volume of deer, there is no way he can keep it all seperated.

It takes me about 6 to 8 hours to properly process my deer. I field dress within 5 minutes of the kill. I hang the deer overnight, then debone, remove all fat, grissle, damaged meat. I cut steaks roast, & grind for buger. My ratio is app 30 to 40 %

A Kansas grain fed deer can not be improved by aging. also no need to soak overnight in any magic potions to kill any wild tastes, because the isn't any if processed right

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

I weigh most of my deer dressed and then weigh the meat from the processor. If I haven't hit the shoulders the percentage of meat to dressed weight is just over 50%. I got back 117 lbs of meat this year and it had a bad shoulder due to an old injury. That would have pushed the total over 120lbs. That buck weighed 258 lbs on the hoof so thats 46.5% meat weight to live weight. Assuming a 215 lb dressed weight the ratio to dressed weight is 55%. That percentage might be a little high because of the size of the deer. I do get a kick out of the fact that the meat from that deer is close to the average live wieght of most deer shot.;)
That goodness no one hit that buck with a car. That would have been one tangled mess of iron.

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

LDB and I have debated this one for a while...I did talk to an outfitter here in Saskatchewan that weighs everything that comes in....according to him the guts on a big buck will be around 40-45 lbs. the most weighing 47 lbs. the biggest deer that he has weighed was 275 lbs. and was a PIG...talking with another outfitter that does the same in terms of weighing once weighed a elk-sized deer that came in a hair over 400 lbs. on the hoof....I am getting one of those deer scales for LDB so we can be a little more accurate in terms of live weight to meat yield...we bone out all our own meat...and the .33-.35 is what we think is pretty fair...

RE: Average amount of meat after processing?
 

Most deer, unless extra beefy (muscular) or real skinny, will yield about 45% of the live weight or 57% of the field dressed weight back to boneless edible venison. If you get alot more than that it isn't trimmed well....if you get alot less than that then you probably had bullet damaged meat or it was trimmed a little too well. Deer that are REALLY small actually wil yeild a higher percentage of meat back (up to 67% of field dressed weight), but even really big deer rarely give back more than 56% of the field dressed weight.
I'm basing that on years of butchering my own deer and comparing that to the yeild I've seen after watching others butcher deer. And I base my live weight/ dressed weight on chest girth measurement. I've only actually weighed a few deer. The chest girth method is pretty accurate.