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Beef Cuts Breakdown
What actually comes out of a beef carcass — primal by primal, pound by pound, with the cuts you'll get.
Beef Cuts Breakdown
Inputs
Results
Take-home total
~67% of hanging (bone-in)
503 lb
Ground beef
201 lb
Steaks
126 lb
Roasts
151 lb
Primal breakdown (of hanging)
chuck roast, pot roast, short ribs, ground
ribeye, prime rib roast, back ribs
T-bone, porterhouse, strip steak, tenderloin
top sirloin, tri-tip, sirloin steak
rump roast, eye of round, round steak, ground
brisket, skirt, flank, short ribs
shank, neck, organs, trim
How to use this
Cut style tells the butcher what to maximize. "Max steaks" keeps more of the rib and loin as steak rather than grinding the ends; "Max ground" pushes trim, chuck, and round toward hamburger. Your butcher will return roughly the same total take-home either way — just different shapes.
Heritage cattle (longer-finish grass-fed, smaller carcass) shifts slightly more weight to roasts and less to steaks due to musculature differences.
Formula
primal_lb = hanging_lb × primal_%
take_home_lb ≈ hanging_lb × 67% (bone-in)
Related calculators
Half or Quarter Beef
Buying a share of beef? See the weight you'll take home and the cut-category breakdown.
Pork Cuts Breakdown
Every primal from a whole or half pig — chops, bacon, ham, sausage — with curing options.
Hanging → Take-Home Weight
From hanging carcass to packaged meat in your freezer — bone-in vs boneless yield by species.
Formula
primal_lb = hanging_lb × primal_%