Paid to have meat processed, did i get ripped off?

6

6724

New member
i am very busy this fall, building a barn and some other projects. so for the first time i decided to pay to have my quarters processed. a friend's wife dropped the quarters off for me. i had two bull elk quarters and 2 cow moose quarters done, steaks and burger. they claim that the elk quarters weighed 63 pounds each, and that the moose quarters weighed 75 pounds each. that right there seems wrong, the elk i would have estimated at 65 pounds, so that is good, but the moose quarters were huge. i estimated them at 100 pounds minimum. what i got back from one elk quarter (gave my buddy the other one) was 33 pounds of burger and 22 pounds of steaks. that works out pretty well, only 8 pounds lost in bone and fat (a bit low on loss). BUT, the two moose quarters at 150 pounds only yielded 52 pounds of burger and 39 pounds of steak. that means that i had a waste of 59 pounds! that is almost 30 pounds gone off each quarter! now i know that moose bones are big, but the quarters were HUGE. the quarters as dropped off, had no bones below the knee, and no pelvis. to only get 91 pounds of meat off the back half of an adult moose seems quite a bit LOW. i have killed bull elk that i got far more meat off of and they were no where near as big as the moose was.

i should have weighed them myself before they went in. i really do not like cutting and packaging, and did not have the time this year. but i dont think they will be getting anymore of my business. 30 pounds of loss on a moose quarter that had no lower leg, no hide, almost no fat, seems very high, not to mention that the weight they claimed was about 25% low is a bit frustrating. i no i get charge by the hanging weight, so i did not get ripped off there, but there is no way that the leg bones and fat in that moose were 30 pounds per rear quarter.

and my buddy instructed them to add 10% suet to the burger so i really didnt get as much as it seems in burger.
 
Since you didn't weigh them , how can you know forsure ?



Should have taken the time to do it yourself, would only have taken half a day tops.
 
Originally Posted By: WyYoteKillerI hope you got a kiss, you got fornicated by the butcher.

Maybe, but probably not.
 
meat proseesors hear this ALL THE TIME!!. its amazing they even take wild game in anymore.
i have my doughts that he would steal meat.
every year i hear of buddies that think the got ripped off.
it also happenes EVERY YEAR that someone will say they got 90lbs of meat off a 150lb dressed deer
rolleyes.gif
 
I hear this a lot as well, and as someone who processes their own game, I can tell that you don't get near as much meat off of a deer, antelope or other game as you might think. Hogs are even less. The head and hide alone of a big hog may weigh as much as 40% percent of the total dressed weight.

http://butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=document_general_info&cPath=36&products_id=331

Quote: Meat Yields (In Pounds)
Animal Weight* Meat Waste %Meat
Lamb** 50 40 10 80%
Hog 240 189 51 79%
Black Angus 600 438 162 73%
Holstein Steer 900 513 387 57%
Mature Buck 180 72 108 40%


*Carcass weight. Head, hide and intestines removed

**University of Wisconsin research


The Equation for Venison Yield
Hunters can learn more about their deer and how much venison it will yield by first obtaining an accurate field-dressed weight. This figure helps determine the deer's carcass weight - the deer's body weight minus its head, hide and innards. From there, it's easy to calculate how much venison is on the carcass.

It's important to note that this equation assumes that no part of the deer is lost to waste from tissue damage. Obviously, a deer suffering bullet - or to a lesser extent, arrow - damage to its back, hams, shoulders or neck will yield substantially less venison. Therefore, it includes calculations for "ideal" meat yield - the maximum amount of meat on a deer with nothing being lost to waste, and a "realistic" meat yield - the amount of meat a hunter can expect to receive after subtracting the pounds of meat lost to bullet/broadhead damage.

The equation does not account for meat that must be removed after being ruined by stomach contents or overexposure to warm weather.

Remember, to use the equation, first obtain an accurate field-dressed weight.

How Much Does it Weigh?
Mature white-tailed deer can be heavy, but much of their weight is distributed in non-meat areas. Here are some examples of how weight is distributed in Northern deer. (live weights in parenthesis)

Hide Factor

•Fawn: (100 pounds) 6.7 percent
•Adult doe: (140 pounds) 7.9 percent
•Adult buck (160 pounds) 8.7 percent
•Bucks: more than 160 pounds 9 percent
Bone Factor

•Fawn: (100 pounds) 13.8 percent
•Adult doe: (140 pounds) 13 percent
•Adult buck (160 pounds) 12.4 percent
•Bucks: more than 160 pounds 11.7 percent
Blood Factor

•Fawn: (100 pounds) 6 percent
•Adult doe: (140 pounds) 5 percent
•Adult buck (160 pounds) 5 percent
•Bucks: more than 160 pounds 5 percent


Using this guide as an example, a 180-pound buck would have 16.2 pounds of hide, 21.06 pounds of bones and 9 pounds of blood. Unfortunately, it's difficult to estimate the live weight of a deer if it has been field-dressed because the weight of a deer's innards varies depending on its health and diet.

Never put a lot of faith in a "guessed" weight. More times than not, you won't be all that close. Not nearly close enough to second guess the processor.
 
I toted a caribou out by backpack across 4 miles of Tundra wearing hip boots and I would have bet you he weighed in at 1850 lbs.
grin.gif
Only got 160lbs of meat
lol.gif
 
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I saw a cartoon at a butcher shop with a hunter holding up a small deer by one hand. The caption said something like"

"I want 40 pounds of steaks, 40 pounds of sausage, 40 pounds of hamburger, 20 pounds of chili meat...."

I tried to find it but couldn't.
 
I cut & grind my own antelope at home and I thought Id get more off them, but I have 4 antelope in a 7. cubic freezer along with my other regular food, its full, but not even close to what you think youd get off them. I don't waste any part of them and trim to the bone.
It seems I have more weight in bones than meat sometimes.
 
Yep, you MAY have gotten taken...but I doubt it.

My dad & I started hunting whitetails in 1976.
Every year my dad would get a deer, and not wanting to do anything more than field dress it, he'd take it to a local locker plant. (It took a few trial & error years to find a good one.)
Regardless of whether the locker was a "good" one or not, we never got the amount of meat back that dad thought we should have.
But he ALWAYS got a list from the butcher stating how much waste was split into bones, fat, ect.
And in the end, the numbers always worked out correct.

Of course, during my pre-adult years, since I was living at home, I'd take my deer to the same locker.

Once I became an adult, & started fending for myself, I only took my deer to one locker, even though it meant driving an hour one-way to deliver the deer there.
I, like dad, always got a listing of how things weighed out.
Although the numbers worked out correctly, I always thought the deer weighed more than it actually did.


Nowadays, the group of guys that my dad hunts with, all get together & butcher their own deer, because initially they thought they were getting "ripped off".
Once they got to doing it themselves, they discovered that it wasn't true.
By the time they figured it out, they already had all the necessary tools to do their own butchering, so they have kept doing it.
From what dad tells me, once they get things set up in one guy's garage, working together, it almost becomes an assembly line...from skinning to packaging.
And they claim it saves them all a lot of money.
 
Every locker I know has so much leftover wild game at the end of a season due to hunters not wanting to pay they have no reason to cheat anyone.
I do my own processing and used to be very meticulous about trimming. A few years ago, I watched a locker do a friends deer. Now I trim less and have a few pounds more meat these days out of an animal.
 
i have processed my own meat since i was a child, in the early years hunting white tails we figured 30% from field dress weight. on larger animals i believe it to be a bit better yield.
but on this situation, i am not talking about an whole carcass, i am talking about a hind quarter with no bone below the knee, no hide, no hip bones. there was no fat to speak of on this quarter, so the only loss is trimmings and the leg bones. i know moose bones are large and from experience i know there is a lot that gets trimmed off cleaning up the meat. BUT to lose 30# from each quarter is excessive in my opinion. it puts the yield at 60% from a quarter.
i had estimated the elk hind quarters at 65 pounds, they said they weighed in at 62.5 each. the moose quarters dwarfed the elk quarters, looked like an elk quarter next to a deer quarter. i estimated the moose quarters at 100 pounds. i lift heavy stuff all the time, like bags of concrete and grass seed and these moose quarters were heavier than an 80 pound bag of concrete. when hanging elk quarters by myself i rarely have any issue, but hanging these moose quarters was a whole other story.
it is over and done now, i called the processor and she was very defensive. she told me basically that i was a moron and that there was no way that they made a mistake. that i must have thought they were bigger quarters because i had to carry them out. funny though, i was spot on with my estimate of the elk quarters.

i have killed moose, numerous elk, caribou, bears, and deer. this moose was the largest animal i ever killed. one elk i killed a few years back netted 289 pounds of meat, one rear quarter boned out and trimmed up was 64 pounds of meat. that elk quarter with the bone and fat and trimmings i estimate would weigh in about 80 to 85 pounds. these quarters were far larger than that.

looks like i am back to cutting meat myself.
 
it must be that they just blow through the quarters as fast as they can. their trimmings pile must be red, my trimmings piles were usually white to pink. i guess when you do your own, you take more care to maximize the animal.

probably a normal situation, but a new one for me.
 
Originally Posted By: 6724
looks like i am back to cutting meat myself.

It takes more time, but in the end, you know exactly what you've got. I'll be starting in on half and elk and a mule deer tomorrow.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: 6724i have processed my own meat since i was a child, in the early years hunting white tails we figured 30% from field dress weight. on larger animals i believe it to be a bit better yield.
but on this situation, i am not talking about an whole carcass, i am talking about a hind quarter with no bone below the knee, no hide, no hip bones. there was no fat to speak of on this quarter, so the only loss is trimmings and the leg bones. i know moose bones are large and from experience i know there is a lot that gets trimmed off cleaning up the meat. BUT to lose 30# from each quarter is excessive in my opinion. it puts the yield at 60% from a quarter.
i had estimated the elk hind quarters at 65 pounds, they said they weighed in at 62.5 each. the moose quarters dwarfed the elk quarters, looked like an elk quarter next to a deer quarter. i estimated the moose quarters at 100 pounds. i lift heavy stuff all the time, like bags of concrete and grass seed and these moose quarters were heavier than an 80 pound bag of concrete. when hanging elk quarters by myself i rarely have any issue, but hanging these moose quarters was a whole other story.
it is over and done now, i called the processor and she was very defensive. she told me basically that i was a moron and that there was no way that they made a mistake. that i must have thought they were bigger quarters because i had to carry them out. funny though, i was spot on with my estimate of the elk quarters.

i have killed moose, numerous elk, caribou, bears, and deer. this moose was the largest animal i ever killed. one elk i killed a few years back netted 289 pounds of meat, one rear quarter boned out and trimmed up was 64 pounds of meat. that elk quarter with the bone and fat and trimmings i estimate would weigh in about 80 to 85 pounds. these quarters were far larger than that.

looks like i am back to cutting meat myself.

If you don't trust the processor that is probably the best idea. Especially if you don't trust his scale or the people that check it's accuracy.
 
Took two moose hinds in last year 92#s each 184# hanging, told them to steak them and put the rest in bags and I would grind with the fronts. got back 95 lbs steaks, 50lbs grindable meat. and weighed the leg bones at 18 lbs each. so 158 came back waste was 26 lbs.
 
It's been 25 years since we've had any meat commercially processed. It came back with so much hair in the meat from 2 different places and we found out from an employee that one was blending deer for the sausage and ground meat. There are good processors out there and they can only work with what comes in, but we like being able to control the quality of the end product. There is definitely a lot more waste than one would guess and we also found with our own scales that weights can be deceiving.
 
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