The actual packaged meat that ends up in your freezer — after the butcher cuts bone, trim, and fat from the hanging carcass.
Take-home weight is what you actually receive from the butcher: packaged cuts, boneless or bone-in, ready for the freezer. It is the weight AFTER bone and excess trim are removed from the hanging carcass.
Yield from hanging to take-home varies by species and cut style: bone-in beef ~67%, boneless ~57%, bone-in pork ~75%, boneless pork ~65%, lamb bone-in ~72%, boneless ~62%.
The cut sheet you fill out with the butcher drives the yield. "Max steaks" keeps more of the rib and loin intact; "max ground" sends trim and ends to hamburger.
Half beef bone-in
375 lb hanging × 67% ≈ 250 lb take-home
Whole pig boneless
180 lb hanging × 65% ≈ 117 lb take-home
Hanging Weight
The weight of a butchered animal after hide, head, and viscera are removed — but before cuts and trim. What most farmers price on.
Primal Cut
The first major division of a carcass — chuck, rib, loin, round on beef. Every steak and roast is subdivided from a primal.
Dressing Percentage
Ratio of hanging (dressed) weight to live weight. Beef typically 60-64%, pork 72-76%, lamb 48-52%.
Hanging → Take-Home Weight
From hanging carcass to packaged meat in your freezer — bone-in vs boneless yield by species.
Half or Quarter Beef
Buying a share of beef? See the weight you'll take home and the cut-category breakdown.
Freezer Capacity
How much meat fits in 7, 15, 20 cubic feet — sized to half beef, whole pig, whole lamb.