Beef Buying Guide
Beef shares are priced on one weight and delivered at another. Understanding the difference is the single most useful thing a first time buyer can learn.
Hanging weight, also called carcass weight, is the weight of the carcass after harvest, once the hide, head, feet and organs have been removed, and before it is aged and cut. It is the weight most producers use to price a beef share, because it is the first reliable weight of the beef itself.
For a typical finished steer, hanging weight runs at roughly 60 percent of live weight, so a 1,200 pound animal commonly hangs at somewhere around 700 to 750 pounds.
Take home weight is what you actually carry home: the packaged, cut beef. It is less than hanging weight because moisture is lost during aging and bone, fat and trim are removed during cutting. A common range is 60 to 70 percent of hanging weight.
Where you land in that range depends on your cut sheet and the animal. Boneless cuts, lean ground beef and a long dry age push the yield toward the low end; bone-in steaks and roasts push it up. So a half that hangs at 350 pounds might come home as roughly 210 to 245 pounds of beef.
Packaged weight is the weight of the finished, wrapped cuts, which is the same thing as take home weight. Some producers price shares or boxes per packaged pound instead of per hanging pound. A packaged pound price looks higher, because you are not paying for the weight lost in cutting, so convert both to the same basis before you compare producers.
As a rule of thumb, take home beef is around 40 percent of the animal's live weight: roughly 60 percent of live weight becomes hanging weight, and roughly 60 to 70 percent of hanging weight becomes packaged beef. For a 1,200 pound steer, that is somewhere around 420 to 500 pounds of beef, though breed, finish and cut sheet all move the number.
A whole beef commonly hangs at around 600 to 850 pounds and comes home as roughly 360 to 590 pounds of packaged beef. Ask the producer what their recent animals have hung at; that is the best guide to what yours will.
A half usually hangs at around 300 to 425 pounds and comes home as roughly 180 to 290 pounds of packaged beef, depending on the animal and how you have it cut.
A quarter usually hangs at around 150 to 210 pounds and comes home as roughly 90 to 145 pounds of packaged beef. A split half quarter brings a mix of every type of cut in that weight.
Ground beef is the flexible part of the cut sheet. On a standard cut list it is often somewhere between a third and a half of the take home weight, so very roughly 150 to 250 pounds from a whole beef and 75 to 125 pounds from a half. You can raise it by sending roasts, stew meat and short ribs to the grinder, or lower it by keeping more of them whole.
The premium steaks, ribeye, strip, tenderloin, T-bone and sirloin, come from the rib and loin, which is a smaller part of the animal than most people expect. As a rough guide, steaks make up something like a fifth to a quarter of the take home weight: very approximately 80 to 120 pounds from a whole beef and 40 to 60 pounds from a half, more if you cut extra steaks from the chuck and round.
A thicker cut means fewer steaks, not more beef, so steak thickness on the cut sheet changes the count rather than the weight.
Roasts come mainly from the chuck and the round, with brisket and rib roasts on top if you ask for them. On a typical cut sheet, roasts are roughly a fifth to a quarter of the take home weight: very approximately 80 to 120 pounds from a whole beef and 40 to 60 pounds from a half. Ask for smaller roasts if you cook for two, and grind some if you would rather have ground beef.
General guidance for buyers, not advice about any one producer. Weights, yields and freezer space are approximate and vary by animal and cut sheet, and every price is set by the producer. American Beef Direct sells no beef.
Every state page lists the producers on record there, the nearest ones next door, and the ranches that ship.