Weights explained

[vin_rouge]

Can anyone explain and clarify the weights I would expect from a Dexter, and also some of the terms used?

I've been told that as a rough guide an animals dead weight is two thirds or the live weight and the boned out weight is about one third of the live weight. So, a 200kg steer would have a dead weight of 133kg and a boned out weight of 66kg. Is this about right?

Also, I see a lot a reference to a killing out percentage. What is this? Does it refer to the boned out weight as a percentage of the deadweight (66/133 in the above example).

Many thanks for any help you can give me on this.

Simon

[Rob R]

Killing out percentage is deadweight divided by liveweight, so your 200kg steer would have a KO% of 66.5% which is a good weight. KO is usually 55 - 65% depending upon the breed.

Boning out is about 66% of the deadweight, so 87.78kg of a 133kg carcass all boned out meat.

[domsmith]

As far as i know you would be lucky to get that KO for a normal beef beast. surely a 200kg lw would be more 110kg.

boned out weight would be around 1/3 of the live weight. but robs figure sounds more accurate.

d

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Our last steer was 225kg on weighband live, 128kg dead, ie 56.9%. Don't have a total weight for yeild of sellable beef.

Duncan

[Broomcroft]

I've got stats from over 100 Dexters from a number of farms.

Deadweight to liveweight averaged 53%, with very little variation.

Boned Out to Deadweight averaged 61% with a lot of variation ranging from 52% to nearly 70% for a bull. But mainly, they were around the 61%.

Average Boned Out to Liveweight came in at 32%.

All figures exclude offal and most were non-shorts. Figures for shorts were usually not as good with some exceptions.

[Robert & Alison Kirk]

Our average of beef to sell is consistently 64% / 65% of deadweight, the info has been very helpful when working out monthly income from beef.

Alison Kirk
Boram Dexters