Deer Carcass estimates

[Bountyhunter]

Here are some formulas for estimating size of deer. This comes from a site called Ask the Meatman who quotes Kansas State University Meats Department as his source. These are average figures for thousands of deer (they say over ten thousand deer processed).

Live weight x 78%= field dressed weight
fdw x 75%= carcass weight
cw x 75%= edible meat weight

Edible meat weight x 1.35 = carcass weight
cw x 1.33 = field dressed weight
fdw x 1.26 = live weight

Field dressed weight = 78% of live weight
Carcass weight = 58% of live weight
Edible meat = 43% of live weight

Live weights can be estimated in the field by measuring the girth of the animal just behind the front legs.
Inches-Estimated weight
36-135
37-146
38-157
39-169
40-182
41-195
42-210
43-228
44-244
45-267
46-290
47-310
48-340

They advise hanging the meat, skin on at 34-36 degrees for up to two weeks before processing. However, since most people do not have a place to do this, and processing plants require the carcass to be skinned, to prevent excessive dehydration of the meat, most plants only hang naked carcasses for 3-4 days. As soon as I find my temperature/time chart, I will add it to this thread.

This makes it easy to figure your deer sizes. With a 58% carcass dressing percentage, a 175 pound railed carcass divided by .58 shows that the live weight of the animal was about 301 pounds.

Bill

 

[Vaino]

Don't know if any of the info is valid judging from this statement...."edible meat is 43 percent of live weight". So.....a deer of 170 lbs. live weight yields 73 lbs. of edible meat? Not possible! Have killed a whole lot of deer in 60 yrs. and haven't got anywhere near that percentage of edible, boneless meat off a deer......Fred

 

[bramble]

Bountyhunter, the table is fascinating, but yielding almost half of hoof weight is not within my experience. Is the edible meat including bone-in roasts & such. I use everything but the antlers (tried cooking them up but haven't found a recipe that works) but all of it is boned. I know we (ok me) are prone to exagerate deer size, but those numbers seem off. Help me out here
bramble

 

[Swamp Buck]

I have processed all of my own deer and most of the deer my father has taken and I have also noted there has never been a 43% edible meat yield compared to live weight or even dressed weight.

One of these days I'll have to weigh out how much meat is obtained from a field dressed deer where the weight is known and figure out the actual percentage. I should note that I take the extra time up front to de-bone, and remove all fat, silver skin and tendons from the meat, even for the meat that I grind up. What I freeze is pure red meat that is ready to cook after unthawing.

I visited a deer processing business once and couldn't believe how much packaged "meat" they were returning to the customer compared to what I was getting on my own. Only later did I see that each package contained bone and fat along with the red meat. Although, I can't say that all deer processing businesses return deer meat this way.

 

[Bountyhunter]

That boneless meat yield does seem a shade high. Also common sense needs to be applied with the girth measurement. These girth measurements were developed by K-State and Texas A&M in the '70's for estimating cattle weights. They were refined later for other species. Obviously, a big old fat buck in October, and the same buck in December after he is run ragged with the rut, would exhibit a difference in body condition which would make the girth measurement vary. The girth measurement is more accurate for early muzzleloader and bow hunted bucks. The girth measurement wont be real accurate immediately after the rut.

Back to the boned weight. University of Wisconsin figures points to 40% and University of Pennsylvania Department of Animal Science suggests about 37.5%. I am suspecting that this difference in figures reflects the difference in body mass due to varying geographic area. Wisconsin data suggests mature bucks weighing 180 to 200 pounds live weight. Missouri data shows mature bucks with 182 pound field dressed weight. My son in law and myself won second place in two big bucks contests with 178 pound carcass weights.

This suggests that geographical area and corresponding genetic codes play a part in the meat yield. Small framed puny deer will not yield as good of a percentage of usable meat as large framed more muscular deer. It is the same principle as the USDA meat grading system where the larger, more meaty Angus cross cattle yield more usable cuts than the smaller more wasty dairy breeds and Mexican cattle. It is too late tonight to call and check, but I will do some more checking tomorrow.

If I get to go hunting in 30 days, and if I get a good buck, I will take the weights and see how it works out. It sure would be interesting to see just how this varies in different areas. Any of the rest of ya that can get kill weights, bring them in and lets see how they compare to this chart. This chart was developed by a meat processor in South East Missouri.

B

 

[paulvallandigham]

None of the tables is a replacement for actual scale weight. They are approximations, and are fairly close, regardless of the animal. You are going to lose about 25% of the live weight of the animal during field dressing. Now, if you save the liver and heart, as I do, that amount os going to be a little less. Remove the hide and bone out the edible meat, and you will be down to about 55% of the live weight. It all depends on who does the boning, and the skinning work. You can get much less meat if you don't know what you are doing. My first deer was about 85 lbs. dressed. We got 60 lbs. of meat including about 45 lbs. of steaks and roast, and the rest ( 15 lbs.) in scraps I ground up into venison burger and sausage. I bought a couple of pounds of beef suet for the sausage, and after making the sausage and cooking it, rendering down the fat, I had 15 lbs of summer sausage to eat. That stays pretty close to his formula. I did weight the meat before it was frozen, so I am pretty good on that. I also weighted it before I made the sausage, just to find out how much meat I got out of the deer. The liver was over 5 lbs, by the way, but I didn't weight the tongue. I probably went 8-10 ozs.

 

[bob1961]

i don't have a scale to weigh the whole deer carcass so as i skin the deer i weigh the hide mark the weight down and so on with each hunk of meat that comes off the carcass....then weigh edible meat and usely i get bout 35% of the dressed weight....
my buck i got in nov 04 weighed 205 lbs after all the chunks were weighed....

all i got from him after boning it off the carcass and front shoulder pieces was 65 lbs of meat....................bob

 

[rabjr]

When I first saw this chart it raised an eyebrow for sure. I have my own cooler and butcher my own animals. Do pretty much the same thing Swamp Buck states above. Must be a "Swamp" thing :grin: . Only good quailty boned meat goes into my freezer. My findings are more closer to Bob's 35% yield.

Paul please tell me this is a typo.

My first deer was about 85 lbs. dressed. We got 60 lbs. of meat including about 45 lbs. of steaks and roast, and the rest ( 15 lbs.) in scraps

 

[Stumpkiller]

I should say. We figure about 1/3 of the dressed weight, if that. And that's with beef or pork fat added to the burger.

Take a 200 lb dressed out deer (field dressed). The green hide alone weighs about 20 lbs. Maybe 45 lbs for the bones and brain. Down to 135. Then 35 pounds for the sinew, gristle, suet and connective tissue that's too tough to chew - 100 lbs. Add five pounds of fat to the burger and sausage so you can actually swallow it after chewing; 105 lbs. Air damaged/dessicated and gun shot damaged meat, another 10 lbs: down to 95 lbs. Because a guy in a hurry is doung it and not careful you - 10 more pounds left on the bones. You get two produce-sized boxes of about 85 lbs of boned meat total. 42.5% yield. Hey! That's pretty close!

 

[paulvallandigham]

I can't verify the scale at the check station, and I can say I thought she weighed more than that from hauling her around. Like 25-30 pounds more. The 85 lbs is what they told me at the check station. I thought from the size of her, she went over 165 lbs. live weight. So, its not a typo, but the dressed weight was based on a check station scale that I didn't believe when they told me. Since I didn't have my own scale, I gave you the information I had. I know how much the scraps weighed, as I put them on my bathroom scale, allowed for the weight of the container, to figure out how much suet to add to the scraps to bind it together for the sausage. I did the same with the other meat when we finished processing them, and before they went into the freezer. My wife wanted to know how much meat we had been lugging from the refrigerator to the sink twice a day for a week! The next deer I got was weighed on a different scale I did trust, and it was 86 lbs dressed. It was a yearling buck, and I only got about 35 lbs of meat of it, more in line with what I had expected, and, I think, more in line with your experience, too.

 

[Bountyhunter]

That is coming out a shade over 40% of dressed weight. Peoples experiences here are making me suspicious of this research data again. It sure looked good at the time.

I am assembling my hunting equipment, I have a scale and I am going to attempt to get weights on everything this year. I will post my results on this in a couple weeks. I have a call in to Dave Shaeffer at Kansas State U, and if he answers me, I will see what their research data is showing.

 

[rabjr]

Not sure if this helps but my father shot a 8 point in the adirondacks. Weighed 205 lbs live weight, hog dressed at 155 lbs. My uncle shot a 5 point same day weighed 200 lbs live weight, hog dressed at 153 lbs.

 

[Bountyhunter]

What are you calling hog dressed? Is that field dressed, in otherwords, gutted? Or are you referring to dressed carcass weight or rail weight?

 

[rabjr]

Hog dressed is nothing in it, totally cleaned out.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The standard estimate for the removal of guts during field dressing is 25 % of the live deer weight. Both the deer you mention meet that forumla pretty close. Live weight can depend on much, including when the deer last drank water and emptied its bladder! When I was a deer Checker at a station back in the 1960s, we had a scale to weigh the dressed carcasses. Only one deer was brought in undressed, and it was a yearling. It was late in the afternoon, and the hunter wanted to get to the scales before we closed. The rest of the hunters asked us how to estimate the live weight, and we always told them " divide the dress weight by 3 and multiply by 4( 4/3 of dress weight = live weight. ) Obviously, as you find larger and larger bucks, that formula may not be as accurate, and I doubt it would be as accurate on Mule Deer, or Elk. I would expect those animals to lose 1/3 of their body weight during Field Dressing. For those animals, I would divide the dress weight by 2, and multiply by 3.( 3/2 of dress weight is live weight) I may be wrong on this, but considering the extra body muscles, and larger rib cages, I think this would be close.

 

[rabjr]

Nother 233 live weight, 175 lb hog dressed.

 

[Bountyhunter]

I have placed two calls and have not gotten a call back yet, Paul. I am beginning to think that these percentages change with the live weight somewhat. I am going hunting next week and I am taking the hanging scales and will see what we get and post when I get back.

Actually, it really irritates me that these public servants are not returning calls. The main reason that they are on the public dole is to provide information to taxpayers...

 

[paulvallandigham]

He's probably out hunting, too. Cut him some slack!